


all the western stars

by cherryfeather, PoeFaraday



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alpha Finn, Alpha Rey, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Explicit Consent, F/M, Heat Sharing, Heirsverse spinoff, M/M, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Multi, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Omega Poe, Pack Dynamics, Past Brainwashing, Safe Sane and Consensual, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-10
Updated: 2017-07-29
Packaged: 2018-06-01 12:50:41
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 33,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6520474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cherryfeather/pseuds/cherryfeather, https://archiveofourown.org/users/PoeFaraday/pseuds/PoeFaraday
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Poe Dameron has spent most of his life avoiding choosing a mate. Alphas are unpredictable; they leave, they get killed, they're given distant assignments. Now he finds himself with two.</p><p>Finn was a Beta. Is a Beta. Isn't he? He's no longer with the First Order, and he's changing, and something is very strange about the whole thing.</p><p>Rey is an Alpha, but that's not important. Survival is important. Honing her newfound Jedi abilities is important. Jedi do not have mates. Oops.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. strong in will

**Author's Note:**

> It’s been--and continues to be--a labor of love working on this fic. It’s been in production since December, and we wanted to thank you all for your patience! It’s finally here!
> 
> A note about the worldbuilding: the a/b/o ‘verse that this takes place in is lifted from the remarkable brain of our dear friend and mentor, [Kyele](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Kyele/pseuds/Kyele), who established it in their glorious epic [Ye Heirs of Glory](http://archiveofourown.org/works/2718833/chapters/6088544). For more information / background, we refer you to their superior knowledge. 
> 
> The title and epigraph are taken from Tennyson’s “Ulysses.” Tags and characters will be updated accordingly as we roll along.
> 
> Thank you for your support, everyone! L & L

_ Tho’  _ _ much is taken, much abides; and tho'  _

_ We are not now that strength which in old days  _

_ Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are,--  _

_ One equal temper of heroic hearts,  _

_ Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will  _

_ To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.  _

_ -”Ulysses,” Alfred, Lord Tennyson _

 

**

 

The first time Finn opens his eyes, he sees white lights and cold metal ceiling--and his first instinct is that he’s been reclaimed by the First Order, and that they’ve re-educated him.

His stomach drops, his chest seizing as his heart lurches up, and for some reason the first words he thinks are  _ But Rey and Poe-- _

But then a gentle hand rests on his shoulder, and the face he sees is a face he’s never seen before, but a kind and warm face, full of concern and care. “Easy, now. Don’t move too much, or you’ll pull the scar.”

Scar? He doesn’t have any--

Oh.

The fight on Starkiller Base. Right. Kylo Ren, and the fight. And Finn remembers getting cut--the smell of scorched skin--and that the only thing that had really scared him was that he couldn't protect--

“Rey!” he gasps, and his voice creaks with his throat hoarse from disuse.

The hand, firm but not unkind, coaxes him back down. “Take it slow. Your friend is all right, so far as we know. She’s gone after Luke Skywalker.”

Finn’s head is spinning. Skywalker? Right now, none of this is making sense. “Poe?”

“Commander Dameron is with General Organa, briefing for a mission, I believe. He was reluctant to leave your side, which I imagine will please you,” the medical officer says with a knowing little smile. “I can notify the control room--”

“Please!” The word's out of his mouth before there’s even a question to answer. “Please. I need to see Poe. I need to make sure he’s all right.”

A look Finn can’t place crosses the medical officer’s face--he almost thinks it might be concern? But that isn’t quite right. She nods after a second and picks up the comm. 

“Briefing?”

A voice Finn finds almost-familiar, but that he can't quite place, comes over the speaker with a fizz of static. “Go ahead.”

“Finn is awake. He’d like to see Commander Dameron, if you can spare him.”

There’s a moment of silence that goes on much longer than Finn likes. His heart is hammering away in his chest, fearful that they’ve decided he’s a threat, or that he’s served his purpose to the Resistance and is of no further use. The monitor beside his bed is driving him crazy with its beep-beep-beeping--as if he doesn’t  _ know _ how nervous he is.

“Medical, this is the General. Commander Dameron and I will be there shortly,” the other end replies, and Finn realizes with a jolt that it’s Leia Organa speaking, and it will be an absolute miracle if he isn’t about to be cannoned into deep space.

The medical officer hangs up the comm and turns to reach for a cloth and some water. “Best get you cleaned up a little before they come in. And I’ll check your scar again, too.”

 

**

 

“He’s awake!” Poe yelps, almost shooting off the ground in his sudden excitement. The general puts a hand on his shoulder to steady him, but it still feels like his heart is going to fly straight out of his chest. “General, he’s awake, I have to go see him!”

“You will,” she replies. “But Poe, I need to speak with you first.”

“What about?" Some part of him realizes he is  _ talking back to the general, _ but the rest of him just-- "Can’t it wait? General, I’ve been waiting almost a month--”

The general  _ looks _ at him, and it’s like he’s sixteen again, and she’s almost a full head shorter than him but she fills up the rest of the space with sheer power. “Poe. There’s something I need to tell you before you go in there.”

Poe’s face falls, and now his pulse is racing in fear rather than excitement. He can actually feel the color draining from his face. A thousand possibilities cloud his head--paralysis, blindness, memory loss…a thousand things that wouldn’t preclude Poe from still caring about Finn, but that might cause Finn pain, and that’s what hurts the most. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

General Organa is quiet for a moment, and Poe knows it’s because she’s trying to choose the right words, but that’s somehow even less reassuring than if she just came out and said it--

"Finn's been changing," she says at last. Her eyes flick up to his, and Poe swallows, hard, at the tension there. "We didn't just keep him in his coma to heal. There was a substance in his blood we've never seen before."

"From the First Order," Poe says. It's not really a question.

She nods. "We're still not sure what it does, exactly," she says. "But as it's started to dissipate, he's started to--"

"To change." Poe's throat is tight with fear, almost too tight to talk. "What's--how's he changing? What's wrong?"

She spreads her hands slightly. "We're not sure it's  _ wrong _ ," she says, a little gentler. "But it  _ is _ different. And it's something we have no experience with."

Poe can't take this any more. "General, what aren't you  _ telling _ me?"

She thinks about it for another long, long second--then she looks up and fixes him with a sharp gaze. "He presented as a Beta the first time you met him, didn't he?"

"Yes," Poe says, not understanding the subject change. "He's a stormtrooper. They're all Betas."

Organa's eyes are very dark in the dimness of the room. "He's not."

He's.

What?

No.

"What do you mean, he's  _ not?" _ Poe hears his own voice crack. "How--how can he not be?"

"I don't know. But biologically, he's no Beta."

Poe rocks back on his heels. It's a punch. It's like she's punching him in the chest. Is Finn--is he like Poe? Is he--?

"I think he's an Alpha, Poe," the general says softly.

The room tilts like an X-Wing hit with blaster fire. Poe knows he's holding himself up on the table, because his fingers hurt and his arm is shaking, but he can't really bring himself to care. "How," he gets out, flat and harsh and not a question, either. "How."

She's closer than she was a moment ago--not touching him, just letting her presence steady him, and Poe's shamefully grateful for it. "I wish I could tell you exactly how," she says. He can tell she's telling the truth--that this is weighing on her as much as it's suddenly sending him spinning. "It's possible that the First Order has some kind of suppressants. Something that blocks those hormones."

Poe's chest hurts. Oh. Breathing. He's supposed to be breathing. He sucks in air and croaks out, "And you think that's the--the thing in his blood, that was…"

She nods. And then she reaches out, puts a slender hand on his wrist, and Poe closes his eyes and sucks in the humid, green-smelling air. Breathing. He can breathe.

"Poe, we don't think he's really changed," she says. Gentle. Calming. "It's only his blood chemicals that have changed, some of his hormones--they've compared them to other Alpha profiles, and he's not nearly at the levels we'd expect would cause any kind of personality change."

"But we can't know?" Poe wishes his voice would just  _ settle, _ he sounds like a teenager, he sounds like a  _ kid. _

The General sighs. "No. The medics say he seems agitated, but no more than you'd expect. He just wants to see you."

Poe's skin tingles at the back of his neck.  _ Alpha wants you, _ his instincts say, prickling in response, and Poe doesn't know if the thumping of his heart is nervous excitement or nervous fear.

No. No, this is just--this is just  _ Finn _ , this is his friend who saved his life, this is his friend who didn't have anyone until he found Poe. This is Finn.

This is  _ Finn _ .

"And I want to see him," Poe says. His voice doesn't shake. "This isn't his fault. He's scared, and he's hurt, and he's alone. I wanna see him, Leia."

She studies him for a long moment. "I have to have someone monitor you two," she says at last, a curious expression hovering at the corners of her eyes. "Just in case."

Poe's throat hitches. "I figured you would."

One side of her mouth twitches up. "Can't be too careful," she says dryly, and her hand lingers on his wrist for a moment longer before she pulls it away to touch the commpad. "Medical, this is the General. Commander Dameron and I will be there shortly."

**

 

Finn’s knee is bouncing so fast he feels it might go into hyperspeed. The medic had helped him sit up before proceeding on to other duties around the bay, and now that he’s stuck waiting, he feels about ready to burst. It isn’t so much that he’s concerned, because he knows Poe can handle himself. He just needs a familiar face right now, he needs to know that he’s safe--which he does  _ know _ , deep down, but it won’t be real for him until Poe’s here.

His knuckles are white as his fingers wring out the hem of the shirt they’ve put him in, and then he can see the outline of figures through the frosted glass wall on the main side of the med bay. They’re talking--they’ve stopped just outside the door, and they’re talking and he can’t hear what they’re saying, but he  _ knows _ Poe is there, even if he can’t see his face, he knows it’s him. As if Finn’s heart wasn’t racing already, now he feels a little lightheaded with anxiety.

Wait.

That doesn’t seem right. Yes, he’s worried and nervous, but it wasn’t that bad two seconds ago. He hadn’t had that feeling of falling through space as though he’d flung himself off the bridge of a Star Destroyer two seconds ago. Maybe it’s just anticipation. He’s fine, really. He takes a deep breath that feels like it’s inflating long-atrophied lungs and sighs it out.

The door slides open, and Poe comes in, escorted by a man Finn doesn’t recognize. Finn nearly shoots off the bed, worry contorting his face. “Poe!”

Poe hesitates, but only for a second, and then hustles over to him. He moves like he’s going to hug Finn, but pauses. “Your back--”

Finn shakes his head, smiling as much as he can. “It’s okay. It doesn’t hurt. It's a little stiff, I guess? The scar itches. I guess that means it's healing, right, but--" He's babbling. He should stop.

But then Poe hugs him, and Finn stops worrying. He can feel Poe's sigh against his shoulder, and that--that's good. “I’m so glad you’re all right,” Poe says softly. “I was really worried when we brought you back. It was, ah…kind of touch and go there for a little bit.”

And just like that, it seems like the world slows down and takes a breath. Finn relaxes against Poe, his nose buried in that thick, dark hair, his hands resting against Poe’s back. It feels so good to hold someone. To be held. Finn's never really held anybody like this. Just Rey. And Poe.

“I’m so glad you’re safe,” Poe whispers again, and Finn actually shudders with relief--with how  _ safe _ he really does feel.

Someone clears their throat, and Finn detaches himself from Poe to see that it was the officer that Poe had come in with. Feeling heat rising into his cheeks, Finn drops his arms, feels nervous chatter bubble up in his chest again. “Thank you for coming to see me. The medic said I can get out of here by the end of the day as long as my vitals are still good, and then it’s just a few weeks of physical therapy to get my back muscles back in shape."

Poe smiles at him, encouraging. "That's real good news, buddy."

Finn feels lighter just with that smile of Poe's, lighter and a little braver, so he asks-- "I--maybe you could show me around a bit? I don’t know the place well enough to get around on my own yet,” he adds, in an effort to sound maybe even a little less like he’s just making an excuse to spend time with Poe.

But something in Poe’s face shutters, and even though Finn feels this kind of--hope, he thinks? It has to be--Poe seems to catch himself before answering.

“Yeah. I’d love to, Finn. As soon as I get back,” he adds with a little smile, but despite that nagging little tug of  _ hope _ , something feels off.

“Back?” Finn asks, concerned. “From where?”

Poe shrugs and looks away, back over to the med officers in the corner. “Just a recon thing. It shouldn’t take more than a week. It’s all routine, there isn’t really anything to worry about.”

And Finn thinks he should feel better, but the way Poe said it felt so...canned. It's the first time Finn's thought this, since he left the First Order, but--

He feels like Poe's lying to him.

The thought sits in his stomach, sick and twisting like he's swallowed an eel. He doesn't know why Poe would. Poe would have to have a good reason for it. And Poe doesn't look--doesn't look happy about it, doesn't have that slick gleam Finn's seen on officers' faces when they tell assembled stormtroopers something will be  _ all routine and nothing to worry about. _

But Finn was trained in interrogation, in reading crowds and reading faces, and Poe--Poe just seems nervous. Maybe he just  _ can't _ tell Finn. Maybe it's classified. Maybe it's something personal.

Finn looks down and sees that one of Poe’s hands is resting near his on the bed, and he smiles and moves his hand to rest over Poe’s knuckles. It’s the right thing to do, he feels, in that moment. He's never been able to just touch people like this.

Just like that, Poe’s shoulders seem to lose some of their tension, and Finn himself can breathe easier. “Okay," Finn says, forcing some lightness into his voice. "Well. Be careful, please? Recon may not be dangerous in itself, but…" He's not sure how to say  _ I have two friends in the whole universe and I don't want your butt to be target practice. _

But maybe he doesn't have to, because Poe smiles again, and this one looks a lot more sincere. “I’ll come back to you, buddy. Don’t worry.”

Something swoops in Finn's stomach, like the  _ Falcon _ doing a flip. Finn manages a chuckle. “I’m not worried about you coming back. It’s more about how many pieces you’ll be in when you do.”

Poe really grins this time, and just like that, Poe Dameron is fully himself again. “BB-8 has a workable knowledge of human anatomy," he teases, "I’m sure he’d be able to put me back together if he had to."

As much as Finn tries, he really can't laugh at that. It's a little too soon after Starkiller and all that, and he's pretty sure he sounds far more desperate than someone cool and suave like Poe when he tightens his grip on Poe's hand. "Please say you're joking?"

Poe's grin softens, and he leans in a little. It doesn't look like he had to think about it, just--did it, like he knows the way that makes Finn feel comforted rather than caged. "Yeah, buddy, I'm kidding. Don't worry about me. I'll be safe."

_ I care about you, Poe, and I don’t want to worry every time you say you’re leaving that you might not come back.  _ The thought inflates something in his chest like the universe’s most unhelpful buoy. Poe must read Finn’s concern in his eyes or his face or his body language, and he reaches out a hesitant hand to touch Finn’s cheek--but only for a second. Poe drops his eyes, and Finn’s brain clouds with a sense of...something he can’t name. It’s not something he expects to feel, and he can’t explain this sudden phenomenon. Poe’s cheeks have turned red, and he clears his throat.

“I’d better go,” he says, and Finn has a name to put to the feeling that welled so unexpectedly in his head. Self-consciousness. That’s a weird feeling. He isn’t sure he’s familiar with that one.

"Right now?" Finn realizes how stupidly childlike that sounds about ten seconds after it's out of his mouth, but it's a little too late to put it back in.

One corner of Poe's mouth pulls up in a wistful little smile. "Yeah, buddy, I wish I didn't have to."

Finn swallows, nods, tries not to feel  _ lost _ . He's a Resistance fighter now. He can handle himself. He doesn't need Poe here every second of the day.

Poe reaches out and cups his shoulder, smiles reassuringly at him, and Finn reaches up to return the gesture. "Hey," Poe says, a little softer. "I'll be back soon, okay?"

If this is how good it feels to be held by another person, no wonder the First Order never let them fraternize. Finn's whole body feels like it's lifting toward Poe, he feels so light.

"Be safe," he says, and squeezes Poe's shoulder.

Poe grins at him. "Yeah, buddy. You, too."

And then Poe turns to go, and the doctors move in again.

Just before the door closes, Finn gets a hint of something he's never smelled before--something earthy-green and bright and fresh and unexpectedly  _ warm _ , and he looks around to see where it's from.

But then it's gone, and Finn lays back down at Doctor Kalonia's gentle insistence.

 

**

 

Poe Dameron is the galaxy's luckiest sonofabitch, and he knows this because he makes it all the way back to his quarters before his legs give out.

He thuds dizzily to his bed, landing on his side and curling up, and BB-8 wakes up in its cradle with a startled  _ <yesPoe?> _

Poe presses the heels of his hands to his temples, trying to calm the sudden throbbing in his head. He can still see Finn behind his eyelids when he closes them, that sweet and happy and  _ innocent _ look, and Poe feels like dirt.

_ <markers> _ BB-8 beeps at him, concerned.  _ <early?> _

"Way too early, buddy," Poe croaks out.

_ <seeFinn?> _

"Yeah, I did."

Poe has no idea how it all got away from him so fast. He walked in, and Finn was--and Poe just--

His thoughts are already slurring, muddled and starting to tangle, and BB-8 rolls closer to the bed, nudging his knee.  _ <initiate Protocol?> _

Poe nods weakly, just needing a second to breathe, and BB-8 chirrups and rolls away across the room to the closet. He doesn't have to watch; they've been through this enough that he knows what his faithful little friend is doing. BB-8 can throw his clean clothes and water and painkillers into his duffel. Poe needs a minute.

He shouldn't have hugged Finn, he thinks, the memory sinking leaden in his chest. He leaned in, and he got a lungful of--of--

He just has to say it,  _ Alpha _ , he leaned in and breathed in  _ Alpha _ where it had never been there before, and his whole body had lit up like a kriffing explosion.

Finn's an Alpha.

And now Poe's in heat.

He's never met an Alpha that did this to him so fast. He's never just had to  _ breathe _ someone in and find them so compatible that his body decided just to throw all kinds of normalcy to the fucking stars and send him straight into heat. He was close, sure, but he still had a standard week, maybe a few days less, give or take, but--this shouldn't--it shouldn't have--

He rolls onto his stomach and groans into his mattress. 

None of this should be happening.

He doesn't  _ want _ Finn to be an Alpha, he thinks in utter despair. He doesn't want to have to be constantly on his guard around Finn, to feel that lurching pull of his stomach that he'd felt when Finn looked at him just now and said  _ Be safe _ . Finn is too good to be an Alpha, too caring and too genuine and--

And Poe knows he's not being fair even before Finn's lost, anxious face flickers across his memory. This is Finn. Finn saved him. Finn is a  _ good  _ man.

Even when Finn was a Beta, Finn didn't treat Poe like he was lesser because of his sex. And Finn still won't, even if he is an Alpha now. Finn's his friend. Finn is still Finn.

It's Poe who's got the problem, apparently. For all they say about Alphas being unable to control themselves, Poe could  _ kick _ himself for what just happened. He’s a squadron commander. People depend on him. He makes important strategic decisions and the lives of lots and lots of Resistance fighters  _ and _ their families depend on him, and he’s never felt that pressure more acutely than right now. He’s always managed to stifle his Omega-ness--not hide it, or try to be anything  _ other _ , but to just train his focus on the job, on the mission objective. It’s stupid, he knows, but his stomach drops out for a moment as he thinks about what Jessika, or Snap, or any of them might say if they knew he lost his head by just being in the same room as an Alpha.

Maybe his team deserves more credit than that. He knows them, he hand-picked them, and in his heart of hearts he knows not a single one of them would ever think less of him for this. It’s his own fault, the disappointment he has in himself, that’s making his chest feel like it’s being sucked into a black hole.

He's spent so  _ long  _ trying not to let his biology make his decisions.

BB-8 nudges his calf and croons a soothing sequence, and Poe knows the protocol. It's his turn to call the General and say he's taking his leave.

Only he feels like if he calls the General now, he'll have to explain the whole thing.  _ General, you were right, Finn's an Alpha. I walked in, I smelled it right away, and then when we hugged I felt like I was flying, and then my pre-heat dropped out of nowhere and I panicked and now I'm running away because what in the name of the Great Bird of the Galaxy am I supposed to do about this? _

"BB-8, can you transmit to command, please?" Poe mumbles into his sheets. He feels another nagging, aching pang at BB-8's little two-tone beep--he didn't mean to worry it--but he can't get up and talk right now, he just can't. He just wants to get up into Black One and go.

For the first time in his life, he's hoping his heat will come quickly. He doesn't want to think about this any more.


	2. to rust unburnish'd

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Everything has been confusing since he woke up. The way people treated him in the medbay--kind, helpful, like his comfort mattered more than any inconvenience. The way the General's talking to him like an equal now._
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> _The way Poe lied, and then smiled, and left._
> 
>  
> 
> _He's really worried about Poe._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well. You lot can't say we don't treat you. This chapter is huge, so it should tide you over until the next one. Thanks to [Kelsey](http://celticwildechild.tumblr.com), who was our last-minute beta reader (Liz has been sickly lately and we needed a little nudging to get this chapter ready for today). 
> 
> As always, thank you for the amazing comments--this is such a big undertaking, and it really means a lot that you guys are so supportive!
> 
> L & L

 

  
"But where _is_ he?" Finn demands. He can't explain why he's so jittery about this, why he _needs_ somebody to tell him where the hell Poe is right the hell now, but he is and he does so he's just gotta go with it. He's been awake for all of a whole day now, and he doesn't know anything about this base and he doesn't know anyone but Poe. And apparently the only person who could tell him where Poe's gone is the general, which is why he is currently _yelling at General Organa._

Rey is going to kill him when she gets back.

"He took his X-Wing out this morning," General Organa says curtly. "He'll be gone for a few days."

_"Where?"_

The General rounds on him, but a gold hand on her arm makes her stop in her tracks.

"I will inform Master Finn, Princess Leia," See-Threepio says, and the General stares at him.

Finn blinks between the two of them. There’s something in the air, something sharp and heady, and it makes Finn want to hide under a table.

After a few moments, the scent dissipates, and General Organa waves a hand, turning back to the table. "Fine. Only as necessary, Threepio," she adds warningly, and the golden droid inclines his torso.

"Come along, Master Finn," he says, and totters away across the floor of the base.

Finn follows. He's not entirely sure what's happening, but he does know he can't take out any of his frustrations on anyone as ineffectual and harmless as the General's personal protocol droid. He’s sure she wouldn’t be too pleased with him if the droid came back needing a second replacement arm.

"Have you quite recovered, Master Finn?" Threepio asks courteously, leading Finn toward the hallway. "It has been some time since you were outside of the medical wing."

"Yeah." It's hard for Finn to focus on the droid, being back in the bustle of the base. Were there always this many people? This many _smells?_ "I--yeah, sorry, I'm good, thanks." Then something ticks in his brain, and Finn cuts the droid a sideways glance. "Why are you calling me Master?"

The golden droid inclines his torso to Finn slightly as they walk. "I serve the Resistance," the tall droid says. “As a protocol droid, it is in my programming to use appropriate terms of respect to those around me.”

Finn makes a face. “Yeah, well, it’s not really necessary. I’m not in charge around here. I don’t even really have a purpose at all.”

“That isn’t true, Master Finn,” Threepio counters. “You are a friend to Master Poe, and that is very important indeed. It's very kind of you to be so concerned about Commander Dameron," Threepio says as they walk under the archway that leads deep into the base. They're heading up to the landing strip, Finn can tell. He spent what little time they had before the attack on Starkiller tracing this exact path, following Poe, following the pilots, ready to be part of the action. He has no ambition of becoming a pilot himself, but there’s something comforting about following Poe’s routine.

"Yeah," he says, when he realizes the droid is waiting for an answer. "We're. Friends." He will think about why that word stuck in his throat _later_ , dammit.

"I am very glad," Threepio says earnestly. "BB-8 sometimes worries that Commander Dameron doesn't have enough friends. That are human, at least."

Finn swallows. "I'd...noticed, yeah." It's not that Poe doesn't have friends. He’s jovial enough among his fellow pilots, and he seems to be very well-liked among the other Resistance members that Finn has encountered. Everyone speaks highly of him, or at least has a Poe Dameron story to tell. It's just that Poe--for all that Finn has noticed--doesn't let people get...close. Not in the way he's seemed to let Finn get close.

"He finds it rather difficult sometimes, you see," Threepio says, and pauses under one of the great stone pillars. The droid looks up at the empty sky above, and Finn follows his gaze (and does not, does _not_ look for the glint of an X-Wing in the atmosphere).

"Difficult," Finn echoes. "Because…"

"He does not want a mate," Threepio says simply. "And Commander Dameron grows attached very easily."

Oh.

Mate? They're talking about--

Oh. _Oh._

"He's in heat," Finn says, sounding exactly as stupid as he feels. "That's why he left."

"He doesn't wish to ask anyone to help him through," Threepio explains. The golden droid sounds sad. Do droids sound sad? Is that a thing? First Order droids never did, but apparently this one can. "I think he feels it would be...unkind."

 _Unkind._ Because if anyone spent a heat with Poe Dameron and then couldn't do it again, that would probably be the worst thing in the world--and no, Finn is stopping that train of thought in its tracks, only he can't because his palms are sweating and his heart is thudding hard against his chest, and he needs to not ever think the phrase _a heat with Poe Dameron_ ever again. He doesn’t even really know what that entails--he gets that it’s a procreation thing, that it can be a pleasure thing, but logistics are lost on him--and he knows that it would be an absolute tragedy if he did it once and never again.

"He's not alone, is he?" Finn's proud of himself for only sounding a little hoarse. He just--he can't imagine Poe alone for this. Up in the black and the silence.

"BB-8 goes with him." Threepio lays his cool metal hand on Finn's arm. The weight's...comforting. Finn has never had a droid comfort him before. This morning is literally unreal. "Should anything go amiss, he will bring the ship, and Commander Dameron, back to the base."

Finn swallows. "Okay." Okay. But then, what exactly _could_ go amiss? In Finn’s painfully limited experience of the subject, the topic of complications hasn’t exactly come up yet.

"Finn."

He turns sharply in reflex to the tone--authority, attention, _stand up, soldier,_ and salutes the general. "Yes, general?"

She gives him an irritated look and waves at his _attention_ stance. "Don't do that. Come and walk with me."

Finn glances to Threepio, who makes an encouraging go-on gesture. So Finn goes.

Something prickles along Finn's skin as he walks down the long, open-air galleries with General Organa. He's not sure what it is. Hostility, or wariness--

But it's hers, he realizes all at once, as they turn the corner and a breeze sends her scent full into his face.

Scent? When did his sense of smell get this good?

"I know you're confused right now," she says, startling him with the sudden snap of the silence. "I'm trying to be sympathetic, I'm sorry."

"I'm confused about a lot of things, yeah," Finn says slowly.

"I can tell." The General's voice is as dry as Jakku. "Something I did just startled you. Will you tell me what it was?"

Finn wasn't raised to be anything but truthful to a superior officer. "I, uh--" It sounds so _strange_ to say out loud, but here goes nothing. "I smelled you, General."

She tilts her head toward him, and the pace of their walking slows. "Why did that startle you?"

Finn ducks his head. "I'm not used to smelling people. I never could before."

General Organa pauses, and Finn stops with her. She turns to him, and crosses her arms over her chest, and leans back against one of the tall stone pillars. "You didn't smell _me_ , did you?" she asks. She's not giving him any room for negotiation here. "You smelled my antagonism."

In the half-second Finn has to answer naturally, he debates the tactical merits of lying--present himself as less of a threat, reinforce the General's position of power, keep some of his intelligence to himself--all things that served him decently well as a stormtrooper.

But.

"Yes, General," he admits, looking her right in the eye. "You were wary of me, ready to fight."

She watches him coolly for a long moment. "Alphas usually have to establish a pecking order," she says at last. "We have to find out where you fit, Finn."

Finn blinks at her. "I'm...not an Alpha, General." But his voice tips up on the end of the sentence, like he's asking, not telling, and something in her face goes a little softer.

"I don't think that's true," she says.

It's really gentle, the way she says it. It's kind.

It's funny how something said so carefully can flip everything he knew about himself upside down.

Finn looks down at the ground. It's easier than looking at her. "All stormtroopers are Betas."

"We think that they _make_ you that way," she explains. Her smoky voice is warmer than the night, and Finn wonders if this makes her angry. He looks back up, and while her face hasn't changed, her eyes are sharp and dark. "There was a chemical in your blood when you first came here. You metabolized most of it when you were in your coma, and I assume the rest has gone in the last few days."

"A chemical." That makes sense. He'd never known what was in all of his medical injections.

The General nods. "Hormone blockers. So Alphas and Omegas wouldn't present as such." She tilts her head at him, curious. "I assume you would understand why they'd assume non-Beta soldiers would be a problem for them."

Finn nods in return. He still feels dazed, trying to take in this new revelation and make it fit. Omegas, he could understand. They wouldn't want to have to deal with any soldiers in heat. But Alphas…

Why _wouldn't_ they want a whole brigade of Alpha stormtroopers?

"Why--" His voice creaks, and he swallows, hard. "If I'm an Alpha, why wouldn't they keep me that way? Don't they--don't _we_ fight better, aren't we stronger--?"

"We're stronger-willed," Organa says bluntly. "I have a hard enough time getting a dozen Alphas to do what I say. Imagine a whole corps of them."

Finn nods again, numbly, just to do something with himself. He understands, enough.

“You’ll notice we don’t suppress here,” she continues. “Part of that is due to the fact that we don’t have access to many of the drugs that can affect hormones. Suppressants, fertility drugs… things that for us, would make our lives easier."

Finn can hear the bitterness there, and--well, he has to wonder, but now's really not the time to ask the General probing questions about her dead mate--because that's what she has to be thinking about, right? He doesn't know. He wants to ask. He doesn't.

She looks into the middle distance for a moment, seeing something Finn wishes he could see--and then those blaster eyes flick straight back up to his. "What's happened to you has given us reason to believe that the First Order possesses drugs like these, and ones that are stronger.”

"Yes, ma'am." He doesn't know what else to say. "They--do. And lots of them. I mean, this is the first time I've had to go without in my entire life--"

And they both realize exactly how he'd phrased that about half a second after it comes out of his mouth.

Go without.

Like he's--going to get them _back._ As if this were just some little break from his medication, and he'll be back on them in two kliks. As if there was some mix-up, and the First Order doctors will be back with the right injection in no time at all.

The General crosses her arms over her chest, but she doesn't look angry, or forbidding. "Finn," she says softly, "do you _want_ the suppressors?" Finn opens his mouth, and she holds up a hand. "Think about it for a minute. It's all right."

Finn closes his mouth and thinks about it.

Everything has been confusing since he woke up. The way people treated him in the medbay--kind, helpful, like his comfort mattered more than any inconvenience. The way the General's talking to him like an equal now.

The way Poe lied, and then smiled, and left.

He's _really_ worried about Poe.

He wishes he could talk to Rey about it. Rey's been an Alpha her whole life. Surely Rey would know _something_ about what he's feeling, what's been happening to him.

"I'm not used to feeling like this," Finn says slowly. "All these smells, and these weird--pulls, in my chest."

Organa nods, watching him with heavy eyes. She doesn't say anything, though. She lets him talk.

"Even if I wanted to, though," Finn says, looking up at her, "I couldn't go back on the suppressors, could I?"

She tilts her head to one side in a brief, considering motion. "It would be difficult," she admits. "But--no one considered this would be a consequence of your defection. If you _want_ to stay presenting as a Beta, Finn, I would do what I could for you. It's the least we could do."

Finn...doesn't even know what to say to that.

He's never had a choice like this before.

The pulls in his chest, the ones toward Poe--that's his inner Alpha. It has to be. It's the Alpha in him waking up, seeing an Omega and...doing what Alphas do. Finn doesn't _want_ to be at the mercy of this new biology, the way he was at the mercy of the First Order.

But these new parts of him...this sense of smell that might as well be an entirely new sense for how much he learns from it, the extra strength he's starting to feel in his limbs (he knows why he recovered so quickly, now)...those are amazing. And he always should have had them. They were taken from him--hidden from him--and he didn't have a choice.

He wants to meet the person he was always supposed to be. He can control these Alpha... _pulls_ , or whatever they are. He can learn; Rey can help teach him. He already feels more secure in his bones, like his skin fits him better than it ever did.

He feels _good_ , here with the General. Like he's finally figuring out his place.

"I like being this way, General," he says at last. "I wanna be an Alpha."

Her smile spreads slow and warm, and she nods once. Finn feels the pride of that all the way down to his toes.

"I'm glad to make you part of the pack, Finn," Organa says, and Finn snaps to salute like he was born to.

 

**

 

He’s been sleeping in Poe’s bunk since he’s been gone, and maybe a little part of his brain think that it’s not fair, or not right, but he’s been good and hasn’t gone through Poe’s things, and he knows that Poe would have offered if he’d asked. And BB-8 had seemed okay with it, which was probably the best gauge of the situation. It’s as close as Finn can allow himself to be to Poe right now--he’s still wrestling with the weight of his decision, and what it means for Poe. He hopes Poe will understand, that he won’t be upset or want to end their friendship, or whatever it is that exists between them. He wishes more than ever that Rey were here. She’d know how to make him feel confident about it. She’d know how to reassure him.

After probably an hour of BB-8’s intermittent beeping and wailing, Finn finally gets up. He still has little to no grasp of binary, so it all just sounds like an annoying alarm, but he figures there’s more to the message. He throws on a shirt and makes sure he doesn’t look too rumpled before heading down to the mess to fill his loudly growling stomach. Were Alphas always this hungry? Once he’s loaded up his tray, he slots himself onto the bench, where the Resistance pilots glance at him but say nothing.

Poe looks fresh as a daisy when Finn looks up moments later from his mess tray, as though he knew somehow that Poe would be there. Finn isn’t sure what he expected, really, but Threepio’s information from the other day set his brain to conjuring images of a pale, gaunt, desperate-looking Poe. He’s glad that isn’t the case.

“What’s that look for?” Poe asks, setting down his tray across from Finn and grinning as he sets about tearing his bread into quarters.

Finn shakes his head. “What look? I don’t have a look.”

Poe grins even wider, cad that he is. “You looked worried.”

“Worried? No, why would I be worried? You were only gone for four days. Nothing to worry about,” Finn backpedals.

Poe stuffs a bit of the bread into his mouth after using it to mop up some of the thick stew. “What did I miss? Anything interesting?” he asks, and Finn notices he seems careful not to address the reason for his absence.

“Define interesting,” Finn huffs. “Nobody talks to me while you’re not around. General Organa was busy most of the time. Though I had a, uh… an interesting chat with the gold droid.”

Poe laughs. “Yeah, Threepio is a bit of a character. He means well, but as articulate as he is, he doesn’t always know how to control it.”

“I didn’t know General Organa was an Alpha,” Finn adds, hoping he sounds genuinely curious.

Poe nods and drinks from his thermos. “We’ve got all types around here,” he says, his tone going a bit far away. “The new recruits are sometimes not so polite about things, but we whip them into shape pretty quick. Leia doesn’t tolerate bullying of any kind - be it on an intergalactic or interpersonal level.”

“People get bullied about that sort of thing?” Finn asks. He feels maybe a little self-conscious, which is something he’s been feeling more often since coming to understand what that feels like. “Sorry, I--we didn’t have that kind of thing in training and I’m starting to realize there’s a lot I don’t know about it.”

Poe gives him a smile, and Finn’s heart does a little thing that says he’d be just fine with it if Poe smiled at him like that every day forever. “As much as it makes me angry that the First Order changes you against your will or knowledge, I guess at least you don’t have to deal with the petty name-calling. Even in a pretty progressive place like this, we have our fair share of sex elitists.”

Finn’s brow wrinkles up. How could anyone be hateful about something like that? What was the purpose of such hate? There were male and female stormtroopers and nobody said anything about it. That’s just how it was. Neither was better or worse. They were just different states of being. “People treated you differently?” he asks, his voice hushed with the hurt he feels on Poe’s behalf.

Poe lifts one shoulder in a kind of shrug and tosses his hair, and just like that, Finn’s heart is working double time. Does Poe know what he’s doing to him? “When I was little, yeah. The usual stuff, nothing very inventive-- ‘shouldn’t you be at home with the pups,’ ‘always looking for a knot to sit on,’ ‘pretty little girl-Poe’... It’s all dumb.”

Finn is bristling, his hands clenching on the edge of the table, ready to fight for small Poe’s honor. “They said that to you when you were a _kid?_ ”

“People who hate don’t really put a lot of thought into who they’re directing their hate at. They don’t consider the fact that they’re people with feelings,” Poe replies, and Finn has flashbacks to the First Order, to his first battle. Which wasn’t a battle so much as it was a massacre. And it wasn’t even really that Kylo Ren had hated those people, he thinks, but he’s certain the same principle applies. And then, suddenly, he’s impossibly angry--angry at anyone who may have hurt Poe, who may have said or done cruel things to him because of his sex. He can feel his neck getting hot, feel his breath like steam bursting from his nose--

“Hey,” Poe says, and just like that, Finn is drawn out of the hole he’d somehow found himself in. His vision clears. He feels a little dizzy, but the world rights itself and he looks up at Poe and sees an excited grin. “I hear someone’s coming back today.”

Someone-- “Rey! Is it Rey?” Finn wheezes, jumping to his feet and nearly knocking the bench over in the process. “Poe, is Rey coming home today?”

Poe laughs and nods, and before he can say another word, Finn is tearing ass out of the mess. “Finn, wait!” he hears Poe shout behind him, and screeches to a halt.

“What? Is something wrong? Is there something wrong with her?” Finn asks, his blood turning to ice.

Poe laughs again and shakes his head, putting a hand on Finn’s arm. “No, no, of course not. We received a transmission this morning saying that she was on her way back. We’ve still got a couple of hours,” he explains. “I figured we could go clean up my room a bit, since we’ll need some more space.”

That’s right. Rey is coming home. And--just when did Finn start thinking of this place as home? He supposes he’s never really had one before; ‘home’ wasn’t exactly a word the First Order threw around. But strange to be thinking of the base as his home. Poe puts his arm around Finn and suddenly they’re walking down the hall, headed towards Poe’s bunk.

 

**

 

Almost three hours later, they haven’t made much progress on Poe’s room, exactly, so much as just kind of emptied his storage lockers and rearranged some things and talked and talked. Poe is showing Finn how to switch BB-8’s charging station over to secondary power in case the base’s generator ever goes out when the comm on the wall crackles.

“Commander Dameron,” Leia’s voice says, making Finn jump. He still can’t help but be a little impressed that she and Poe are so close.

Poe hops to his feet and goes over to press the call button. “Speaking.”

“Poe, I’d like to see you in my quarters, please. I’d like to debrief you.”

The set of Poe’s shoulders changes, and now that Finn knows that Poe’s mission hadn’t exactly been official business, he somehow feels awkward at still being kept in the dark, at being stepped around with code language.

“I’ll be down in a minute,” Poe responds with a sigh, and steps away from the comm. He zips up his uniform coveralls, which had until now been halfway undone to expose the white shirt underneath and tied by the sleeves around his waist. “I don’t think this should take long,” he tells Finn. “I’ll be back as soon as I can. I promise.”

Finn smiles up at him from where he sits on the floor, and as Poe goes, he can’t help but feel a little stab of helplessness.

 

**

 

“Talk to him, Poe,” Leia insists, leaning in, and Poe may have at least a foot on her in height, but he always feels like a boy again when General Organa talks to him like this. “He worries about you, and now on top of that, he’s terrified for his own sake. You and I may have grown up the way we are, but remember that he didn’t. You--we--need to teach him.”

“General, he just put me into early heat,” Poe wheezes. “I can’t do this now. I want to, believe me. I love the kid, but I just--he’s going to want to come with me. He’ll want to help next time it happens and I can’t let him, and that’s just gonna crush him.”

Leia lifts an eyebrow at him. “Poe Dameron, I have never heard you quit before in your life. I can’t believe you’re going to start now.”

“I can’t break his heart, Leia,” Poe replies, throat tight and eyes filling with tears.

“Then follow yours,” Leia insists, her small hand warm and firm on Poe’s arm.

Poe swallows the lump in his throat and shakes his head. “If only it were that easy.”

A moment of silence settles between them. Both are too stubborn to concede to the other, but neither do they want to keep fighting about it.

“He knows the First Order has drugs, Poe,” the general says after a beat. “All kinds--suppressants. Heat drugs. Fertility drugs. If he can help us start cutting off their supply lines, start diverting those drugs to us…”

Poe lifts his head quickly. His eyes are wide when he looks at her, expectant, hopeful. Suddenly full of possibility. “Do you think that’s possible without giving away our position?”

The general shrugs. “Could be, if we do it right. The point is, if you love him, Poe, don’t be afraid. Not anymore.”

“General, the Millenium Falcon just entered atmo,” someone says from the far end of the room, eyes still trained on a screen.

Poe’s heart leaps in his chest, and without another word--he’ll apologize for that later--he dashes out of the control room and back to Finn.

Rey is back.

 

**

 

Finn is practically vibrating off the surface of the planet with his tension when the Millennium Falcon finally sweeps around in a broad circle overhead. Its berth at the end of the landing strip is clear, as always, and the ship dips and settles, far more gracefully than it had picked up and left--and that settles _Finn_ , because there's still just enough of a wobble that he knows Rey is flying it.

"This is really happening," Poe breathes out at his elbow, sounding just as tense and excited as Finn.

"Yep," Finn manages to say, his eyes locked on the gangway as it begins to descend.

From the front of the crowd, General Organa and C-3PO detach themselves, stepping forward to meet it. It touches the ground, and stops, and the tension in the rest of the group around them ratchets up a few more notches. Finn is pretty sure he's breathing pure adrenaline hormone right now.

A small astromech droid--the important one, Finn assumes, Skywalker's--comes rolling down the gangplank, burbling and beeping a happy chorus at Threepio, and on its heels comes Chewbacca's huge, furred form.

And then Rey. She looks different. She looks older. She's wearing a tunic he doesn't remember, white and short-sleeved, with an old Rebellion flight jacket over it, and he's not sure when he started categorizing every single part of her image but, oh well, he's doing it now.

Finn takes a step forward, every molecule in his body buzzing to her, and then he stops in his tracks because Rey is turning around, and beckoning someone else forward--

And then, that there, that has to be Luke Skywalker coming down behind her. Finn's not sure at first, but then the robed man reaches up and yes, that's the droid hand Finn's heard about, pulling his hood back.

So this is what seeing a legend feels like.

He's older than Finn would have expected, the way the stories still talk about him--his beard is grey, and his black robes seem too heavy for a guy Finn's heard spoken about like he's lightning and quicksilver smashed up together. His eyes dart up and across the accumulated crowd, and an expression Finn can't parse flickers across his face.

But then the General is running, like she didn't even run to Han Solo, and Skywalker's whole focus shifts to her. He moves swiftly down the gangway, looking a little bit more like the legend Finn's heard about, and when he steps onto the earth, the General throws her arms around him. His arms come up to hold her, and he turns his face into her hair, and the General almost disappears in the volume of his cloak.

Relief ripples through the Resistance fighters assembled like a huge wind--it's a sigh, a palpable one, and Finn suddenly wishes that everybody would go away and give the General some privacy. Admittedly, he doesn't know much about privacy, but from everything he's heard, this seems like exactly the kind of moment other people are supposed to not watch.

But then he hears Poe sniff deeply beside him, and Finn frowns over at him to see Poe staring, rapt, at the Skywalker twins embracing, with tears running openly down his cheeks.

"He's really back," Poe whispers, shaking his head like he can't believe it. "He's really here."

And Finn remembers that Skywalker is probably Poe's idol, and that everybody around him probably feels a lot the same. Stormtroopers don't have idols. It's not productive. Finn can't really imagine what Poe's feeling right now, but if Skywalker and Organa had any idea of it, he suddenly realizes why this first meeting would be public.

Everybody needs to see this, because everybody needs to know that everything's changed.

Hope, or something.

Skywalker and Organa draw back, and she puts her hands on his arms, and he rests his hands on her shoulders, and the two of them share a long, speaking look. Finn wonders idly if they're communicating telepathically. Aren't Jedi supposed to do that?

Oh, _Jedi--_

And his eyes find Rey, who's standing with Chewbacca and the droids and literally bouncing on the balls of her feet. She's watching Skywalker and the General and she's got her hands clasped under her chin and she's just beaming, bouncing and beaming and Finn feels his face split into an absolutely ridiculous smile just watching how happy she is.

Organa turns to her, then, and says something Finn can't hear, and Rey half-bows, answering right away, and Skywalker ducks his head and smiles. It changes his whole face, makes him look less forbidding and old and sad, and Finn can tell, now, that he and the General are twins.

And then Threepio totters eagerly forward and Skywalker smiles full at the old gold droid, and now this looks exactly like the family reunion Finn would have expected--all smiles and one-armed embraces of weird protocol droids and an eagerly chattering Wookiee and astromech droid.

Finn chuckles, shaking his head, because this is _weird_ but kinda cute--and then almost like she heard him, Rey turns and starts scanning the crowd.

Her eyes meet his just as Finn has the thought that he should wave or something--

And it's lucky the crowd has started to break up, because that means there's that many people fewer that Rey can totally mow down out of her way as she runs full-tilt across the landing strip towards him, and even less people that Finn needs to shoulder past (because apparently that's _rude_ ) as he moves like magnets to meet her--

They collide a little harder than the General and Skywalker did, but that's because Finn's still young enough to pick Rey up and spin her around with the force of their momentum, and she clings to him and laughs in his ear, and Finn sets her down and just hugs her tight when his head starts spinning, too.

She's different. Everything about her is different. She _smells_ different, strong and grassy and tickling his nose, and she's laughing against his chest, hugging him just as tightly, and he can smell that, too--her happiness and her laughter and how she feels easy and right for the first time in a long time.

"I really missed you," he hears himself saying, because apparently he is still a total child when it comes to her, and she leans back and beams at him.

"I knew you were all right," she says, framing his face in her hands. "I could feel it. But it's--it's still so good to see you, Finn, I'm so glad."

"You did it," Finn says, as obvious as a thing it is to say, but Rey glows under the praise, even happier.

"Everything's so different, Finn," she gushes, dropping her hands to his shoulders. "It's--it's only the beginning, he tells me, and it's not easy already, it's so much sometimes, but I'll have proper training, and he says Leia can help, and--"

She throws her head back and takes a deep breath, her face wide and open and shining--

And then her head snaps back down, and she frowns at him. _"You're_ different."

Finn swallows. "I am?"

"You smell different." And in her brusque Alpha way she snakes her head forward and sniffs at his neck, because somehow the two of them never developed anything like personal space. Finn hears Poe laugh from where he stands nearby. "You--you _have_ a smell."

"Yeah, that's a thing that's happening," Finn says.

Rey opens her mouth to say something--but then her face changes, her frown dropping away, and she turns, one hand closing tight on Finn's forearm. "Master, this is Finn."

And then Finn is face to face with Luke Skywalker.

Who is looking at Finn with eyes like a lightsaber, and is smiling faintly at Rey, and is also, very clearly and obviously the second Finn takes a breath, an Omega.

The legends did not say anything about this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you need to shout or flail, come find [Liz](http://tehriz.tumblr.com) and [Leo](http://babystormpilot.tumblr.com) on tumblr.


	3. like a sinking star

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Poe has not, really, missed that Jedi circle-talk, but he knows he probably deserves it, a little. Still, he smiles at Luke, realizing he's been played out of his awkward adolescent shell, and spreads his free hand in a_ go on _kind of gesture. "Fine. You know what I want to talk about."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Helloooooo friends! Thank you all for reading and for waiting for us to get our acts together, it's been a really busy and stressful month for the both of us. <3 The comments have been AMAZING and we're so thrilled to have everybody on this journey. Hope you like this chapter, it's a doozy. 
> 
> L & L

Poe's room is no longer just Poe's room. It's become a haphazard mess of Poe's things and Finn's things, neither really wanting space to themselves--Finn misses the closeness of stormtrooper barracks, and Poe still thinks fondly of pilot's barracks back in the New Republic--and both easy-going enough to share. If they'd thought about it before it happened, either or both of them might have thought that Rey's return might have thrown a winch in the machinery of their easy camaraderie, but.

But. 

Right now, Poe and Rey sit side-by-side on the cot, their backs braced against the wall. Rey’s tiny head is engulfed in Poe’s helmet, which Finn teased has to be big enough to contain all that hair. Finn has made himself at home on the floor, despite Poe and Rey’s insistence that he join them. Rey's single pack is spread out over the second bunk that Finn's made his own, and BB-8 just trundled down the hall to put Rey's lodging information into the base's systems. Of course she's staying with them. It's just--right.

"So tell me what it's like," Rey says, reaching out to nudge Finn's knee with her toe. "Being awake. Being a _real_ Resistance member."

He can't help but grin at her as he kicks her back, warmth rising in him at the reminder of how they met. (He doesn't even cringe at the memory of what an _idiot_ he was anymore.) "You know how that is already," he laughs. "What's it like being with Master Skywalker all the time? I mean, going from 'tiny orphan living all by herself in the middle of a desert'--" She kicks him again, and he laughs to see her smile. "From that to...to Jedi… What's the word?"

"Padawan," she supplies.

"Thank you--Padawan, and--" He pauses as the whole reality of the situation falls on him, an uncomfortable collision of things he's never had to consider before. "And he's an Omega, too, and you've been living in his pocket. Is it hard?"

Rey smiles and shrugs. Finn will always envy her poise, he thinks, how unflappable she seems, even at questions that are probably way too intrusive (he has a whole new etiquette to learn, a whole new vocabulary). "It took an adjustment, of course," she says, perfectly unfazed by his probable-rudeness. "Like it always would, having to live in a small space with another person. But he's my Master. It's like family, I'm not affected by the fact that he's an Omega."

Finn hears himself say "Really?" before he really thinks about it. And then he feels _really awkward_ when they both look sharply at him.

But Poe's face softens before Rey's does, and he leans in a little bit toward Finn. "You're still getting the hang of it," he says, and he sounds sympathetic. "But yeah, family pack bonds are really different from--" He starts to say a word and freezes, and there's a weird moment where Poe looks like he's swallowing his tongue before he finishes, "From--from pair bonds."

Finn doesn't have to look at Rey to know she picked up on that, too. For a second, Finn breathes something sickening and copper, like something's bleeding--but only half a breath, and he wonders if he imagined it.

"Yes, it's pack," Rey says, a little louder than she'd been talking, and when Finn looks at her, she is very much Not Looking at Poe, but at Finn, with her "explaining face" on. "Pack can be its own special bond, and Master Luke tells me that Jedi and their Padawans always used to form a their own little pack bond--sometimes with their Masters' other former Padawans, too. That there would be these small little packs in the bigger Jedi clan, and…" 

Rey trails off, her eyes distant, and--there's something different about her already, Finn realizes. She's settled in a way she wasn't when they first met. Less like she's being pulled in so many different directions, like she's instead focused on just one now.

Finn feels an unexpected pang to think that his wild, explosive friend has gone someplace and won't come back--

But then Rey shakes herself and turns fully to him, nearly bouncing in her seat, and reaches out to whack his knee, her smile wide and her eyes bright and beaming behind the visor of Poe's helmet. "But enough of that old dust, I just _smelled_ you! You have a scent now!"

Thrown, Finn looks to Poe for confirmation. "I--I do?"

Poe nods, smile lines tight around his eyes. "You do, bud."

"Of course you do," Rey says, bossy as always, and Finn has to smile at his own ignorance. Rey's the same. A little more mature, but maybe so is he. "You really do have a scent, Finn! Just now, I caught it, you were--were you thinking something?"

Finn manages a smile at her, nudging the bed with his knee. "You've changed a lot. You've--got people now."

Rey's eyes soften, and she tilts her head at him. "And that made you sad?"

"No. Yes. A little?" He spreads his hands, shrugs. "I don't know. I just--wish I could share that."

Rey leans over and grabs his knee, gives it a reassuring shake. "You can. You _will._ You'll see." 

"We make our own clan here in the Resistance," Poe says, and they both look at him. He sounds like himself again, and his smile's warm as he nods at Finn. "You're part of it already."

"Of course he is," Rey says, grinning fiercely between the two of them. "So you really think you're an Alpha?" she asks, scooting forward on the bed to sit closer to Finn.

Finn's cheeks heat--he hopes he's not blushing, he's not a kid--and he swallows hard. "I… It’s strange. They’re saying I am. I feel like I am. I didn’t know I even could be. Until I met you two I thought only the First Order were able to be anything but Betas, and even then…" He flounders a bit, feeling the gap in his vocabulary more than ever.

"The First Order has control of most of the hormone drugs--of all kinds--in the galaxy, so it stands to reason that they’d have hormone blockers for suppressing gender traits, too," Poe supplies, his voice soft. There's something tense around his eyes, as quiet as his voice is.

Finn wishes he could ease that tension in Poe's face, but all he can do is smile reassuringly at Poe. So he does, and after a minute Poe smiles back, and Finn can talk again. "Yeah, the blockers--I guess that's it. That’s what the general told me. I’ve seen--their medical wards are loaded with supplies. I never knew what everything was, but if they’re changing people to make them stormtroopers, it makes sense that they’re suppressants."

Rey’s mouth knits in a sour frown. "That’s so horrible, that they drug people to make them different from what they are," she growls, and Finn feels the skin across his back prickle. He smells something sharp, like rusting metal. "Nobody should force anybody to change who they really are."

"It isn’t as if he knew," Poe says, resting a hand on Rey’s arm, and after a moment, the smell dissipates. It’s still there, if Finn tries hard enough to catch it, but it isn’t as urgent now. 

He must be making a face, because Rey takes off the helmet and leans forward. "What is it?"

Finn shakes his head. "Did you smell that?"

Rey frowns at him. "Smell what?" 

Finn chews his lip, trying to concentrate. "It was like...iron, or something, and then--" He glances at Poe, and then at where Poe’s hand still rests on Rey’s arm, right over the muscle of her forearm. "I smelled something else like it, earlier." He doesn't wanna say _I smelled it, and then Poe touched you,_ because that's weird. It is, isn't it?

Rey blinks at him. 

Then her eyes go wide and bright, and she hops forward off the bed to catch Finn's hands in her own. "That was me!"

That is _such a weird thing_ to be excited about, but _okay_ , and Finn squeezes her hands and tries to match her enthusiasm. "It--what?"

"I was angry," Rey explains, nearly bouncing on her knees, "and you smelled it. Alphas and Omegas, we have stronger senses of smell and we put out pheromones with strong emotion--oh, I keep forgetting you don't _know_ , oh Finn, there's so much for you to learn."

He can smell feelings now. Okay. _Okay._ Finn nods, doing his best to keep up. "That's--wow. Okay. So you were angry, and you put that out, and I smelled it? And that was the other thing, too?"

Rey opens her mouth, then closes it, blinking and clearly thinking quickly. "Oh. Well, ahm--"

"That was me," Poe says, and both Finn and Rey jump. He's been so quiet and Rey's been so chatty, it's like Finn just missed him for a moment.

Poe's got his legs drawn up to his chest, and his face looks a little sad, but Finn's not smelling anything strange, so. Maybe it's okay. "That was me, that you smelled earlier," Poe repeats, and he hitches a weird little half-smile on his face. "It was when I talked about pack bonds, right? I, uh. I have some feelings about those, so you probably smelled that."

"Oh." Finn nods, taking that in. "And--" He bites his lip, not really wanting to ask, but since Rey's been--there's no other word for it-- _covering_ for Poe on this, there's probably another etiquette thing that Finn just doesn't know about here. Maybe he should…

Okay, he's just going to ask. "And I'm not really supposed to act like I noticed it, am I?"

Rey and Poe look taken aback, and for a second Finn worries he's screwed up horribly. 

But then Poe laughs, and he smiles at Finn, a real smile, and the knot in Finn's chest loosens. "Yeah, it's good manners not to mention it if you catch a scent when someone's upset. But you couldn't know, so. It's okay."

Finn nods, feeling better, and Rey's hands are still tight and warm in his. She squeezes his fingers again, her bony little ones digging into his larger hands, and Finn is so happy to have her back. "You'll learn quickly," she assures him. "You've got good instincts, I could tell when we met. If you just listen to them, you'll be a great Alpha."

Finn takes a deep breath. If he borrows a little of her sturdiness right now, that's just between him and his _instincts._ "I want to be," he says to them, smiling hopefully. "I wanna be a good Alpha for this pack."

Rey beams at him, and Poe smiles.

"Master Luke told me a story about the general, when they came to Yavin for the first time," Rey says, and then she's off in a story about the first war against the Empire. 

Finn listens, laughs at all the right times, and does his best to ignore the hint of that same sick copper smell in the air. 

Poe does, he thinks, have some pretty strong feelings about packs. That's something he needs to learn about soon, too.

**

The second week Rey and Luke are home, Poe’s body begins doing things he does not at all approve of. Signs--signs that he’s learned to obey and is now blatantly and forcefully choosing to ignore--are manifesting themselves, and Poe refuses to believe that his body, which until now has been more or less predictable, is beginning to betray him. Four weeks. It’s been only four weeks since his last heat. He should be in the clear for another two months. But apparently…

He changes the close-fitting black shorts he wears under his trousers for the second time in a single day, and BB-8 beeps at him.

_< earlyagain…>_

"You’re telling me, buddy." 

_< findFinn?>_ BB-8 chirps, its tone trying to sound helpful. When Poe sighs, giving no answer, the little droid tries again. _< findRey?>_

Poe glances at the droid and huffs a weak, mirthless laugh. "Thanks, buddy, but I don’t think that’s gonna help." 

In the end, he seeks out Luke. It’s safer to talk to the weathered old Omega than it is to be alone, or with anyone else. Besides, he’s given everyone else their time with the Jedi master. He’s owed a reunion. 

The door to Luke's quarters is open, and Poe hesitates on the threshold of the room. The older Omega sits with his back to the door, and his small suite of rooms smells warm, smells friendly and safe and welcoming. There is _tea_ brewing.

"Poe Dameron, will you just come in?" Luke says without turning around. "There's no need to loiter."

Poe clears his throat and steps into the room, coming to sit in the little portable chair against the wall. "It’s nice to have you back, Uncle Luke," he says with a smile. Luke may not be biologically related to him, but like Leia, he’s always felt at least a little like family. And neither he nor Luke have ever really felt the need to sugarcoat things. "Things feel a little more normal when you’re around."

Luke shoots Poe a wry look, one eyebrow quirked up, and Poe blushes at the implications in that look. "Things have not been normal for you lately," Luke says, taking down two earthenware tea cups and pouring them each a drink. Poe takes his without meeting Luke's eyes, and does his best not to notice the corner of Luke's mouth twitching as he blows across the rim of the cup. 

"Not normal?" Poe says, trying to play it cool. "I think things are normal. Rebelling, flying, all the usual things."

When he dares a look up at Luke, he finds a bland smile on his uncle's face. "I remember," Luke says, his tone carefully blank, "when I wouldn't find you in the same room as an Alpha." Poe winces, and Luke's smile softens. _"That_ was 'normal,' Poe."

Poe wishes, right then, that maybe Luke was a little better at sugarcoating things.

"I'm happy you're comfortable with them," Luke says then, and he's so honestly happy-sounding that Poe feels a little bit more like shit than he did a second ago. 

"I am," Poe says, and it feels like he has sand in his throat. "I think I'm too comfortable with them, Uncle."

Luke nods, taking that in, and they drink their tea in silence for a few breaths. 

"They're good people," Poe says when he can't stand the silence anymore. "They seem like good…"

"Good Alphas," Luke finishes when it's clear Poe can't.

Poe closes his eyes and breathes in the steam from his tea. "I wanna be like you, Uncle," he says, but it's not as strong as he wishes it were.

"No, you don't," Luke says, as bluntly as anything, but there's a smile in his voice. "I didn't mate for a lot of reasons, Poe. None of them are yours."

Poe shifts in his chair, feeling painfully exposed. "Are we here to talk about mating?"

Luke chuckles softly, and that sound--Poe has really missed that sound. Luke was always so warm, in his childhood: a dry chuckle, a gentle arm around his shoulders. "You came to me, Poe. We'll talk about whatever you want to talk about."

Poe has _not,_ really, missed that Jedi circle-talk, but he knows he probably deserves it, a little. Still, he smiles at Luke, realizing he's been played out of his awkward adolescent shell, and spreads his free hand in a _go on_ kind of gesture. "Fine. You know what I want to talk about."

Luke gives him a long look, studying, appraising. Poe can’t help but feel a little exposed, even though Luke’s gentle assessment is nothing at all like the brutal interrogation he endured at Kylo Ren’s hands. Even so, his pulse quickens and he tries to curl in on himself a little, just at the memory. _Luke would never,_ he reminds himself. _Your head's safe with him._

Luke notices--he has to--and there's something that flashes so sad in his uncle's face before Luke reaches out to put a hand on Poe's wrist.

"It's not every day that someone finds themselves with two Alphas, even when there’s no suit involved," Luke says. "You have so much to offer, Poe, so much love to give, and I find it so strange that you seem to not want any love in return."

Poe’s ears heat up, and he stares fixedly at a tile on the floor. It’s not that he doesn’t want it. There's just too much at stake, too many variables, too many unknowns. If it were a battle situation, he’d consider it a suicide mission. You don’t jump into a warzone without knowing your odds.

"You are part of something big, and grand, and old," Luke tells him, his voice softer now. "Our people have endured so much, and still come through it in the end." He falls silent for a few moments, and to Poe, it looks like he’s gathering up memories like plants from a garden, pulling up old knowledge like deep roots. 

"The Sith were the first ones to start separating the old families," Luke says, and Poe can feel the weight of such history pulling at his chest like gravity. A collapsed star drawing them both in. "Not all of them, of course. Not the Organa, or the Bey, or the Amidala. They were high-profile enough that it wasn't so easy to break them and sell them into slavery. Not like the Skywalker, the Eckener, the Antilles." 

Poe takes another drink of his tea. His throat aches. "I knew my mother was an Omega," he says, his heart aching a little too,, "but I’ve never known much about her family." 

"Clans," Luke corrects him gently. "In the old days, they were clans." He looks at Poe and smiles a little, fondly. "The histories say that the Bey were once quite noble, that they always supported a free republic, that they fought for justice in the galaxy. Your carrier may not have lived a privileged life, but she was a testament to her clan. Her courtship with Kes…" He laughs, shaking his head. "Shara rarely did things the traditional way, and never by halves."

"The traditional way?" Poe asks, his interest piqued. He’s heard stories about old courtship rituals, but he chalked them up to nonsense. Nobody does things like that anymore--they don’t have the time or the resources. Half the pairbonds he’s seen were formed just before or just after heading into battle. Nobody really courts. 

Luke nods, and there’s a twinkle in his eye that hadn’t been there a moment ago as he sets his empty teacup aside. "There used to be codes of conduct, how suitable Alphas were meant to offer their suit, and how, if they were accepted, they were allowed to conduct themselves around their intended Omegas. Once the political tensions in the galaxy started rising, courtship rituals sort of became obsolete for anyone who didn’t belong to a major house of nobility. And even then, it was often a luxury few could afford the time or patience." 

He turns to smile at Poe again, with deep fondness. Poe isn’t entirely sure what warrants it, since it isn’t as though Luke had been around while Poe was growing up. "Shara and I were once on a mission together, before she and Kes mated," Luke says. "It was strictly Omegas-only business--to save the Force tree."

"Oh," Poe breathes, caught up in the thought of it. That--that's something special. "Omegas only?" 

Luke nods. "As we understood it then, the tree required an Omega caretaker." He pauses a beat, to let that sink in for Poe, and Poe tries not to think too hard about why Luke's giving him a nice long moment to think about that. Something just for Omegas, something special that wasn't just carrying or tending house or--no, no, Poe's not thinking about it.

Luke lifts one shoulder, half a shrug, and goes on. "To make a long story short, Shara and I kept the tree safe from the Empire. When we left, I gave Shara a piece of the tree." He smiles at Poe, nudging his leg gently with his own. "That piece, as I understand it, has been in the care of your family."

Poe nods. "It’s on Yavin Four. I grew up with that tree." There's a lump in his throat, and he feels compelled to add, "It's still growing." _Even though I'm not there taking care of it._

Luke lets out a soft little laugh as he reaches out to pour another cup of tea. "I had a feeling. You know, when I gave Shara that gift--did she ever tell you what I told her?" Poe shakes his head, and Luke sighs in half exasperation, half fondness. Poe does remember his carrier wasn't one for sharing sentimental stories. "I told her--well. She had been mulling over Kes’s offer of suit for months--longer than most Omegas. I chalked that up to her nerves. But when we left the planet, I told Shara to let the Force guide her, to trust in it--but also to trust in herself. And if she accepted Kes’s suit, that the tree would be my mating gift to them."

Poe smiles, his head filled with an image of his parents planting that tree, of them kissing under its branches. 

And then the thought of mating turns his stomach to ice again, and he drains his cup of tea to try and melt it. But the tea's cold, and now so's Poe.

"Why...why are you telling me this now?" he gets out finally.

Luke takes a sip of his tea and gives Poe a look. "I just got back." 

_Jedi._ Poe tries not to roll his eyes. "Well. Yeah. But...why not before? Or a week, or a month from now?"

Luke takes a long drink of his tea. Then he sets his cup on the table and looks Poe in the eye. "Do you want advice? Or do you just want to know what I think?"

Poe's stomach flips, but. He trusts Luke. "Advice."

Luke smiles. Really smiles. "You have decisions to make," he says, as gentle as Poe thinks he can be. "My advice is the same I gave your carrier: trust the Force. Trust yourself." He spreads his hands, then, with a little quirk of his mouth. "I'm lacking in symbolic gifts right now, but I can see what I'll come up with, if you want."

Poe can't help but laugh, and he sets down his cup. "I think I'll be okay. But it means a lot, Uncle Luke."

Luke doesn’t rise, but Poe can feel the warmth of him. "I'm here any time."

**

_He feels hands, at first. All over. They make him gasp and arch, pressing into them for more. His skin is on fire, and he feels the blood under it thrumming so hard it may as well be boiling._

_"Easy, Poe," a voice purrs in his ear as hands stroke down his chest. "We’ve got you."_

_"Finn?" he asks, and his tongue feels like lead in his mouth. He feels like he’s been drugged. The thought should startle him, probably, but he feels safe._

_"I’m right here," Finn’s voice says, and the hot breath tickles his neck. Poe can feel him, but he can’t see him. He can’t really see anything. "We’re here to help you, Poe. You don’t have to be alone."_

_Poe cries out suddenly, and as he squirms, his thighs slide together with little friction between them. He’s leaking more than he’s ever done in his life, and he lets out a loud, keening whine. He’s so empty-- "Finn, please, I need--" he gasps, and his heart is pounding so fast that it’s hard to tell where one beat ends and the next begins._

_"We know what you need," a new voice replies, and this time it’s Rey, and speaking from somewhere above Poe. "Such a good boy for us, so pretty, so patient…"_

_Poe feels tears streaming down his cheeks. He wants it so badly, wants them so badly. He wants to turn around and present for them, arch his back deeply and show them how ready he is, show them how slick he is--how his tight, as-yet unbreached hole needs them to fill it. "Please please please...don’t make me wait," he sobs._

_Something changes, and behind him, he no longer feels Finn, but rather something rough and ridged pressing into his back, irritating the skin. He blinks, and now he can see. The familiar branches of the Force tree sprawl overhead--he must be pressed against its trunk. He’s naked, and the bark is really starting to feel painful against his skin, but he can’t move. He’s not tied with rope or chains, but he’s being held there by something he can’t see._

_"You don’t have to wait anymore," Rey says, and he sees her walking towards him, fully clothed, but with her hair down. Her eyes are dark, almost feral. "You’re not alone anymore. You have us."_

_He should be scared but he's not. Not of Rey. He can't move and he can't do anything but moan and twitch, but--Rey wouldn't, wouldn't hurt him._

_"Comfortable?" a third voice says. A voice that makes his hot blood suddenly run cold with recognition, and now he is scared. Poe thrashes against whatever is holding him against the tree. "The Force is strong," Kylo Ren’s voice echoes around him. "It is not easily broken. You can’t fight what you are. Embrace it, Poe. Embrace your weakness."_

_Poe howls, violently writhing against the Force-hold. His face contorts in pain, and the tears in his eyes are no longer tears of unresolved pleasure, but of pain and fear and desperation. He screams--_

"Poe! Poe, please wake up! Finn, why won’t he wake up?!"

Poe gasps like a fish out of water, swallowing air as if he’s drowning in it. He scrambles to sit up, fighting against the tangle of sheets on his bed. His eyes are wide, terrified, as if he’s still stuck in the nightmare. He sees Finn in front of him, arms spread wide, hands soft, as if he’s gentling a frightened animal. 

"Finn," Poe whimpers, feeling his chest tighten. 

"Oh, Poe, we were so scared," Finn breathes as Poe throws himself into Finn’s arms. "You were screaming for so long, and we couldn’t get you out of it."

Rey strokes his hair, which he only now realizes is absolutely soaked with sweat, as though he’d just jumped into a pond. "Your scent was rising and you were in distress and it just...it scared me--us--so badly, and we couldn’t get you to wake up," she half-sobs against the crown of his head. 

Poe comes to himself a little more, then, and with a thin-lipped murmur, he extricates himself from their arms. "Mmmno…no, can’t…" he mumbles, still a little sluggish as he scrambles to his feet, stumbling back against the wall for support. "I can’t do that to you… you deserve better, I can’t…"

Finn starts to rise to his feet, which makes Poe cower just a little, though it isn’t a conscious choice, and Poe sees Rey’s hand press against Finn’s hip to keep him back. "Can’t what, Poe?" Finn asks, almost desperate. "You need help. It's okay if it's not one of us, or both of us, it doesn’t matter. You need _help_. From somebody."

Poe doubles over, his shoulders shaking with sobs that have yet to find tears or voice. His breathing is ragged and he clutches at his shoulders with trembling fingers. "Alphas leave. Alphas die. Alphas take," he mumbles, sweat beading over his face and dripping into his eyes and onto his lips. "Pups die. Pups are stolen." His eyes are fixed at a static point on the floor of his room, glassy and unseeing. "I can’t… can’t mate, can’t make pups, too many enemies…"

And then, suddenly, he’s being lifted. His head lolls against Rey’s shoulder as she picks him up, tears streaking through the day’s grime on his cheeks. He hears muffled words, the blood pounding too thickly in his head for him to make any sense of them, and then Rey is carrying him out of his room and down the hall. He sees shapes in orange and white and olive and brown, and once or twice he hears Rey growl. He tries to picture what she must look like, baring her teeth and snarling in defense of her Omega. He imagines it’s _beautiful._

And then Poe knows the scents and sounds of the medical bay, and Rey is explaining what happened to Doctor Kalonia, who nods, says something that Poe trusts is reassurance that he is in good hands and that she would take it from here, and ushers Rey towards the hall. Before Rey concedes defeat, though, he catches her gaze one last time, and she raises her hand in a gesture Poe almost believes is of love. 

Just like that, she’s gone, and Doctor Kalonia is closing in on him, asking questions and pressing a cup of water and a small square tray into his hands. He looks down dumbly and the medical officer’s mouth twists in a frown. She takes the tray back.

"Lie back, Poe," she instructs him, and his legs feel heavy as he swings them up onto the reclining exam chair he’s been deposited in. Once he’s settled, Kalonia speaks again. "Open your mouth, please, Poe. I’m going to give you something to help you rest."

Poe resists at first, but he can’t fight it for long. His body is already exhausted, and he’s not even properly in heat. He does as he’s told, and Doctor Kalonia pops two pills into his mouth, then orders him to drink some water, which he does. They don’t take long to go into effect, and he feels his eyelids drooping heavily after barely a minute while Kalonia attaches various monitors. 

"Just for a little while," she explains. "We need to make sure your body isn’t under too much stress. Early heat can put a terrible amount of strain on vital organs, and we need to keep you in top form, Commander." 

But Poe isn’t listening. His muscles have gone slack, and he drifts off to sleep, deep and safe from the havoc his hormones are wreaking on his body.

**

"Poe, please! Let me help you - let us help you," Finn begs as Poe stuffs a few ration bars into his bag. "You don’t have to do this alone anymore. It’s not safe."

Poe shakes his head. "I knew it. I knew it was gonna be a bad idea for you two to know. I don’t want to hurt you, Finn."

"And how are you going to hurt me?" Finn responds, leaning in. "Going alone, you have a better chance at doing that. Doctor Kalonia said that the closer heats are together, the greater the risk. Something could go seriously wrong, Poe. What if your ship gets picked up while you’re in full heat? What if the First Order gets hold of you? What exactly do you think they’ll do to you, Poe? Give you a blanket and a pat on the head?" 

A nerve in Poe’s jaw jumps a little as he stares down into his bag. "I’ll be fine," he says quietly after a moment. "I have BB-8. If anything happens, it’ll let me know."

"I love that droid just as much as you do, but what is it gonna do if Ren finds you? It’ll let us know, for sure, but by the time we can extract you? I know what he’s capable of, Poe, I’ve seen him do things before--"

"I know, Finn!" Poe whips around, his eyes red with tears. "I know, I’ve seen them too. I’ve seen Omega _pups_ burned from the inside out. I think I know what Kylo Ren is capable of."

Finn falls silent, his own eyes going shiny with tears. The metallic walls seem to vibrate with the sudden silence between them. Finn’s heart is pounding, Poe can hear it, and Poe's sure Finn can smell the waves of distress coming off of him. All he wants to do is let Finn take him in his arms and assure him that everything will be alright. 

"Please, Poe. Please let us protect you."

But. Poe sighs, shouldering his bag. "I can’t."

"Can’t what?" Rey asks, turning the corner from the corridor into Poe’s room. Her tone suggests that she knows precisely the answer.

Poe sighs again, this time for Rey. "I have to take heat leave again. Now. Before it gets worse."

"Seems to me that going alone would precisely make it worse," Rey counters. "It’s dangerous, Poe."

"I can handle myself."

Rey's next to the doorway, not in it--she's not blocking him, but he'll have to walk past her painfully open, pleading face to do it. "No one's saying you can't," she assures him, "but you won't be flying at your best, you'll... Can't you let one of us come with you?"

If he just focuses on packing his bag, he can get through this. "No."

Rey's voice almost cracks (kriff, so does Poe). "Poe, I know you’re afraid, but don’t get yourself killed for this. Please."

Poe sniffs. He can't deal with this right now. He wipes his eyes with the cuff of his sleeve, and turns to go. "C’mon, BB, let’s go."

The astromech beeps sadly as it rolls after him, stopping just a moment to turn its little head to Rey and Finn before following Poe out of the room.

**

If this keeps happening, it’s going to be a problem.

Poe’s drenched in sweat already as he climbs into Black One. BB-8 loads itself into the astromech dock and beeps at Poe.

_< noFinn? noRey?>_

"No, buddy," Poe says, immediately starting the launch sequence. But even as he answers he feels a tug of something in his stomach. Not regret, it can’t be regret. Definitely not. Even so, something in his head makes him add, "Not this time."

He doesn’t want to think too much about it. He's in his ship, he's breaking atmo, he's clear of the system. Only. Two Alphas, two young, brave, kind Alphas who Poe knows care very deeply about him. And for whom he also cares very deeply. 

They would have come if he’d asked. They would cross galaxies for him, and for each other. They already have. Poe doesn’t have to be alone. He chooses to be. 

_Why?_ No, don’t answer that. Before he can have any more kriffing stupid thoughts, he grabs the throttle and makes the jump to lightspeed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DUN DUN DUNNNNN. If you need to scream/flail/yell in a bag come find [Liz](http://tehriz.tumblr.com/) and [Leo](http://babystormpilot.tumblr.com/) on ze blogsphere.


	4. both with those that loved me, and alone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _"Rey?"_ Oh, no, that's Poe. He sounds so strained, his voice so thin and reedy. _"Rey, where are you?"_
> 
> "I'm staying in the main part of the ship," she says, as calmly and as kindly as she can. "I don't want you to scent me."
> 
>  
> 
> _"I already smell you everywhere."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You've all been so lovely to us, and to thank you for your patience last month (and...since we kind of already had this bit written), we're giving you guys a little treat. Thank you again for the continued comments and support, and we both hope you love this chapter as much as we do! 
> 
> L & L
> 
> p.s. this chapter has been a formatting nightmare to post, 1/10, do not recommend having 3 types of dialogue

Rey climbs into the cockpit of the Falcon, plugging in the coordinates Leia gave her from the last trace they ran on Poe’s X-wing. It had taken considerable insisting, but Rey put her foot down and Finn had agreed to stay behind, reluctantly agreeing that one Alpha going was bad enough. Rey is grateful for the task of piloting; she’s jittery with the prospect of what might await her when they find Poe, and flying the Falcon gives her a routine to follow and focus on.

They don't speak until they've left atmo. Rey fidgets with the navigation controls until Chewbacca murmurs beside her. <Do you know where we have to go?>

Rey takes a deep breath. "I think so."

She closes her eyes and reaches for the place of stillness inside herself--still yet humming, and she dips her hand into the water and reaches for Poe.

Poe Dameron, tousled hair and darling smile and sweet connection, connecting slowly between the two of them, connecting stronger through their shared joy in Finn--

Be careful how you think about your attachments, Luke had told her, and Rey tries to tamp down the feeling of ownership, possession, that tries to color her feelings as she strains to catch a hint of Poe. Caring, protectiveness, affection, friendship--yes. Love, yes. But it has to be free, has to be given, cannot be possessive and grasping--

_I love him and I'm worried for him--_

And then she touches the bright ball of light that is Poe, only it's sick and weak and in pain, and Rey feels her hands move on the controls to bring her closer to him.

"I've got him," she says aloud, and Chewbacca lets out a chuckling growl that seems to have the word <Jedi> somewhere mixed in.

The flight is short, in their bigger, faster ship with a very keen young Alpha at the controls, and when Poe's drifting X-Wing finally appears on their scanner, it's all Rey can do not to just throw herself out of her seat.

<Gently,> Chewie reminds her, and Rey swallows as she reaches for the comm system.

"Poe?" she tries first, hating the way her voice trembles. "BB-8? It's Rey in the Millennium Falcon."

Nothing.

Her heart drops--and then the comm flares to life in a burst of static. She thinks it's the connection failing, until it evens out into a rhythm and she realizes it's Poe breathing.

_"I told you I didn't want any help."_

He sounds like he's swallowed a desert's worth of sand, and Rey's heart aches. "We picked up a First Order transmission," she explains. "Star Destroyers. You aren't safe out here, please come back with me."

_"I can out-fly a Star Destroyer."_

"Really?" She hates to press him, can already tell he's in agony, but she cannot leave him here. "How's your fine motor control? Can BB-8 outrun a Star Destroyer on its own?"

A gasping breath, and then she can hear Poe tamp down a groan. _"Rey, please, I don't want…"_ He trails off, sounding so miserable and desperate and already resigned, and Rey's stomach clenches.

"I'm not going to mate you, Poe," she says, and tears burn at the corners of her eyes. "I'm not. I'm just going to take you back to D'Qar."

Poe's breath shudders out more static on the comm. _"Alphas make promises,"_ he muttered, sounding half-delirious. _"Alphas promise and Alphas lie, Rey…"_

She can feel his pain from here, his fear and his loneliness and his ache, and she wishes she could reach out and soothe it.

"Not me," she vows. "I will never lie to you, Poe Dameron."

_"I can't stop you."_ Poe sounds so broken. _"You don't need me to let you tractor me and take me on board."_

Chewie looks sidelong at her, and his furry paw hovers over the tractor control.

Rey motions him still. "I won't without your permission," she says into the comm.

Poe is silent for a long moment. So long that she worries she's lost him. "Poe?" Rey swallows, checking the link. "Are you still there?"

_"Yeah."_ He lets out a rattling breath. _"Do it."_

Rey's fingertips go numb with the relief that cascades down her back. "Thank you, Poe."

Han had modified the Falcon's small dock-connector to fit an X-Wing cockpit, so it's easier than Rey had expected for Chewbacca to tractor Poe into place and connect them.

<Did the plan go further than this?> Chewie asks, not unkindly, once they've got the X-Wing secured.

“Get him home, hopefully avoid running into the Star Destroyers,” Rey replies with a shrug that suggests it should be simple, even if she doesn’t quite believe it. “He should be as comfortable as possible. We're going to make sure of that."

<We?>

Rey nods. "Will you go and pull him out? I need to get something."

The Falcon's stock of face masks hangs inside the bulkhead near the gangway, thankfully far from the docking connector. They're meant for low-oxygen situations, or for filtering toxins from the air--she's not a hundred percent sure that Omega heat pheromones will count, but the little voice inside of her that she's come to trust says yes.

Rey fits one of them over her nose and mouth and takes a deep breath. It's clean air, odorless, with none of the Falcon's usual metallic tang, and she sighs in relief. It's going to be all right.

She hears the hiss of the dock closing, the metallic patter of BB-8 rolling on the grilled floors, and the heavy sound of stumbling. Her heart gives another jerking twist, and she grips the wall hard to stop herself from going to him. Even if she can't smell him, he'll smell her. He doesn't need an Alpha leaking compatible pheromones everywhere. It'll only make it worse.

And then the comm link beside her beeps, and she presses the button, alarm flaring in her chest. "Chewbacca?"

_< Got him in the spare bunk,>_ Chewie growls over the speaker.

_"Rey?"_ Oh, no, that's Poe. He sounds so strained, his voice so thin and reedy.  _ " Rey, where are you?" _

"I'm staying in the main part of the ship," she says, as calmly and as kindly as she can. "I don't want you to scent me."

_"I already smell you everywhere."_

She breathes a curse under her breath. "I'm so sorry, Poe, but it's better this way."

Poe whines softly, and Chewie murmurs something to him that Rey can't make out. But she does hear what Poe says next. _"No, I wanna see her."_

_< You didn't five minutes ago!>_

_"Rey, please?"_

Rey takes a deep breath through the face mask, reassures herself with its clean smell, the pure air going all the way into her lungs and saturating her cells. "Poe, I don't want to make it worse."

_"Being alone is the worst part of it."_  He sucks in another agonized-sounding breath. _"Can you just--hold my hand?"_

Rey lets her head fall against the metal bulkhead with a _thunk_ _. _ She's not strong enough for this.

So she takes a deep breath and combs her mind for the lesson she'd asked her Master for. "Can you tell me your name, then?"

Poe actually chuckles out a raw-edged laugh, and she knows he recognizes what she's doing. _"Poe Dameron."_

"Where are you?"

_"The Millennium Falcon."_

"Why are we here?"

_"I took my X-Wing out 'cause I'm in heat. You came to get me because the First Order's out here, and because you can't leave well enough alone."_

Rey bites the inside of her cheek. He sounds lucid. Lucid enough to joke, even if it sounds a little strained and helpless.

She presses the comm button and says quietly, "That's not the only reason I came."

Poe's laugh mixes with a painful groan. _"Yeah. I know. Will you please come here?"_

Rey thuds her head against the bulkhead one more time for good measure. "All right, I'm coming."

She takes a second mask from the stock and marches down the hall before she can lose her nerve.

BB-8 meets her at the entrance to the living area, and the little droid thumps affectionately at her legs when it sees the second mask she carries. She pats its head, too distracted to offer much more, and BB-8 hums out _< grateful!>_ in a little chirp as it rolls behind her.

Chewbacca meets her halfway to the bunk where she knows Poe is, and she holds out the second mask without comment. Chewie tilts his head at her, and Rey spreads her hands. "What am I supposed to do?" she hisses.

<I didn't say anything,> the Wookiee rumbles, and he disappears back into the bunks.

A second later, she hears Poe laugh, loud and a little crazed. "Really?" he yells to her.

"Do you _want_  to keep smelling me?" she yells back. Her heart's beating in her throat--she doesn't know why she's so anxious about this, except for--well--

She's never been _near_ an Omega in heat before. And she's confident she can control herself, that the mask will protect her and her respect for Poe will do the rest, but it's still frightening. There's still so great a chance that she could hurt him.

A chance that this will change things too much.

After a long pause, when Poe calls back, his voice is has the scratchy, amplified sound of the face mask speakers. "I mean, _yes,_ but no. I'm safe, you can come in."

Rey and Chewbacca pass on her way into the bunk, and the Wookiee gives her another look that makes her cheeks flush pink. <I'll be in the cockpit,> is all he says, but there's a tone in that guttural growl that makes Rey feel like he's her older brother or something.

But then she's in the sleeping quarters, and Poe rolls over in the bunk to look at her, and Rey stops thinking about anything but him.

He's taken off his flight jacket and his black t-shirt is plastered to his chest with sweat. His orange and white pants hang dangerously low on his hips (and he's nearly soaked through them as well), and every few moments his body shudders, tremors chasing their way down his back.

"Hey," he pants, his throat sounding like it's been scraped raw, even with the mask filtering out some of the worst of it. Even through the mask, she can see his half-smile. "I'm not used to being seen like this. Sorry if I'm not at my best."

"Oh, _Poe_ ," Rey says desperately, and she's running to the bunk before she makes the conscious decision to. The deck hurts her knees when she drops down beside the bunk, taking Poe's clammy hands in hers, but she barely notices.

Poe gasps at the first touch of her skin to his, and his whole body twists towards the place where their hands are joined. He huffs out a whine, curling into a fetal position on his side, and when he looks up at her, his eyes are liquid black over the rim of the mask. "Rey."

She hushes him, a boiling mix of protectiveness and fear and want churning up inside of her, and she untangles one hand so she can brush his sweat-soaked hair back from his forehead. "You're going to be all right."

Poe shakes his head, pressing his face into her touch. "I'm on fire already, Rey," he croaks. "It's only gonna get worse."

Rey swallows hard. She can't imagine worse than this already. She doesn't <i>want</i> to imagine worse than this. "But you won't be alone this time."

Poe nods helplessly, and he shudders again. He's so flushed, every bit of him seems drenched, and Rey is so thankful for her mask. She knows the scents of him will be overpowering.

She can already feel herself responding, for all her control. Her heartbeat quickening, blood pulsing between her legs as she watches this beautiful Omega writhe in need.

She's glad he can't smell her, either. She's not very proud of herself right now.

"Would you--" Poe grits his teeth and shakes his head almost as soon as the words slip out, and he rolls away, hiding his face in the bunk.

Rey's whole body keens with loss when he pulls his hand away, but she takes a deep breath and grips the edge of the bunk instead of reaching for him. She can do this. She's here to be whatever he needs. "Poe?"

"Pretend I didn't say anything." He shakes his head again, and his shivers are worse, she can see. "Don't let me ask for things."

"Some things are all right." Rey bites back all the rest of what she wants to say-- _surely holding hands, or holding you, or having another body against you_ _ \-- _ because that is _not helpful_ \--

Poe's sob is loud with the microphone for the face mask, and Rey's own eyes prick with tears. She can't do this. Why did she think she could do this, could be strong enough to stay with him while he's in agony and she can't do a blessed thing about it?

But then he whispers, so quiet that even with the microphone she barely hears-- "I can't let myself get _used_ to this."

Rey has never let her Alpha instincts control her in her life.

Until right now, when her brain blanks with fire and she reaches out for Poe's shoulder and rolls him onto his back so she can see his flushed, tear-streaked face. "Poe Dameron, you stop this and listen to me," she snaps. "You deserve this. You deserve someone to care for you through the worst times of your life, and you deserve someone who will hold you without thought for themselves, and I know that I never want you to be alone again and I know that _Finn_  wants you never to be alone again, and if you don't think we're going to be that for you, then--then _fine,_ but I am the person who is here with you  _ now, _ and you are not going to make yourself _suffer_ more because of some--of some misguided self-sacrificing heroic pose, do you understand me?"

Poe stares up at her. His eyes are hazy, his lips parted slightly under the mask, and whether it's in shock or something else, she can't tell--but he's staring at her like he's never seen her before, and Rey falters slightly under that gaze, all her insecurity rushing back.

Poe pushes himself up onto his elbows, and Rey sits back on her heels to keep the distance between them. The distance he'd chosen. The distance she'd just swept aside without care for his boundaries--

"I'm so sorry," she blurts, in the same second he breathes, "Say that again."

Rey blinks at him. "Which...which part?"

"Any of it." Poe stares desperately at her face. "All of it."

Rey swallows, hard, and reaches out to cup his cheek. "You don't have to set yourself apart anymore," she tries, because it's harder to say when she's not angry, when she's not caught in the grip of her instincts. "You don't have to make yourself be alone, and be sad. I don't--I don't want to be anything to you that you don't want me to be, Poe, but I'm here and I'm offering to make things better in any way I can. I don't want you to reject that just because you think you don't deserve it."

His gaze drops, skittering away. "I'm not--I'm not a good person, Rey, I--" He shivers, and whether it's his heat or memory she can't say. "I'm a killer, I'm a soldier, and--I think it's the right thing to do, I do, but it's not--" He closes his eyes and shakes his head. "You're both so _good_ , and I don't wanna--"

"You are good, too," she says fiercely, taking his face in both hands and shaking him gently. "You saved Finn, and you saved me, and you lie awake at night thinking about everything you've done, and that's what counts. You _think_ about it, you _care_ _ , _ you're _good_ , Poe."

He looks broken when his eyes come back up to hers, and she wishes they could be having this conversation with him more lucid, when she doesn't feel like he'd believe anything she told him just to sate what his body's screaming for--

But he's not all gone yet, his eyes are still locked on hers, and maybe Poe with his defenses down is the only Poe who would have let her get close enough to tell him.

"I wanted to ask you to--to lie next to me," he says at last, his voice so thin and small. "I just--I hate being alone in a bed, it's so cold and I ache so bad, Rey…"

She leans in and rests her forehead against his, because she can't kiss it the way she wants to, and the bubbles of their face masks click together. They would be breathing the same air, she thinks, if they could. "Of course I will," she says.

Poe smiles weakly behind the mask, and Rey smiles back, as bright and as reassuring as she can.

"Sit back on the bed a little," she directs him, and Poe does his best to slide back, his muscles shivering and ungainly. Rey helps him when it's not too intimate, helping him get his legs tucked in closer against himself, and then she'll climb up next to him.

She starts to shift so she can lie behind him--she's caught in a literally overwhelming urge to mold her front to his back and wrap him in her arms--

And then she gasps and bites her lip, freezing in place half on her knees, because oh, _no_ , sky above, she thought she was better than this.

"Rey?" Poe's eyes are so huge, wide and pleading, and Rey grits her teeth.

"Sorry," she says. "Having a, um, moment."

Poe blinks until she gestures vaguely between her legs, and then she sees it click in his head. "Oh." He flushes even deeper. His throat bobs as he swallows. "Oh. Rey."

"I'm sorry." She takes a deep breath, tries to think about Jakku, about sand and sun and heat scorching literally every drop of sex or arousal out of her. "It's--I've never, um." _Go away, will you just go away,_ she thinks frantically at her erection. She wants to be able to hold him without terrifying him, and _no, do not think about holding him if you want to be able to walk or move comfortably._

Poe groans again and throws an arm over his eyes. "Sorry. I'm sorry."

"We don't _both_ need to be apologizing," Rey laughs breathlessly. It's ludicrous, is what it is, that she's gotten this far with him and she's going to ruin it all with stupid physiological responses.

Poe chews his bottom lip _(no, too erotic, stop looking, Rey)_ , and his lips curve, impossibly, into a smile. "Rey, just get up here."

It's throaty and hoarse and perfect and _no, bad body, stop reacting._

But he's asked. And she's helpless for him.

“Where were you born?” she asks, clearing her throat. She has to make sure. She has to be absolutely, infallibly sure.

Poe’s smile grows a little, and he huffs out a laugh that Rey can hardly believe. “Yavin Four."

"What was your carrier's name?"

"Shara. Do _you_ even know my carrier's name?"

"I do now."

Poe laughs again, weak but sure.

Rey takes a deep breath. Then she pushes herself up and climbs into bed behind Poe.

He gasps as she tentatively stretches out behind him--her arm reaches up to slip under his neck and cradle his head, and she gets the whole of one side and her thigh pressed against his back. She doesn't dare turn fully onto her side so their bodies can lie flush together--she's still stubbornly half-hard, and touching a wriggling, squirming, undoubtedly wet Omega is <i>already</i> only going to make it worse. Trying to press herself up against his ass is tantamount to giving up completely at this point.

But even their small amount of touch right now--her arm under his head, her side and leg against his back, her other hand coming tentatively around to settle on his arm--is clearly affecting him. Poe's quivering almost constantly, even as his bigger shudders seem to have ceased. She can feel all his minute trembling, as close as they are now, but his breathing seems to have evened.

"Is this helping?" she asks, stroking her thumb lightly over the bare skin of his forearm. He's soaked in sweat. She wonders if he's cold--she should have brought a blanket.

Poe lets out a shaky breath. "I don't know. I don't feel as--as empty, but." His voice hitches and he swallows. "Rey, I want you so bad."

Rey takes a deep breath. And another. And a third for good measure. "I want you, too," she admits. "But only--only when we've agreed beforehand. Together. Not like this."

"No." Poe curls tighter in on himself, even as he buries his face in her arm. He lets out a shaky little groan, rubbing his forehead against the inside of her wrist, and Rey bites down hard on the inside of her cheek.

She wants to take care of him. She wants to take care of him so badly. She just wants to wrap him up and hold him close and--

And consume him utterly? That can't be very Jedi-like.

Still, she wants to nibble gently at the back of his neck, to kiss the sweat away and stroke his arms until he has gooseflesh for a different reason. She wants to be gentle as long as he wants it, rough as long as he wants _that_. She wants to hold him as he shakes and gasps and groans--only not from emptiness, but from _her_ _. _

She--probably should roll over a little bit more. In the opposite direction.

"I've never been through heat with another person around," Poe says, his sandpaper voice a little less gritty. "I always--locked myself away, or took my ship out."

Rey licks her dry lips under her mask. "I've never been around an Omega in heat," she admits.

Poe presses his brow against the pulse point of her wrist again. "How do you know so much about what to do, then?"

Rey's laugh is shaky and a little hysterical. "I asked Master Luke."

Poe's bark of laughter is just as high and delirious as hers. "You. You what?"

"I--I wanted to know how to...help." She reaches up with her free hand and rubs at her brows, realizing only now how completely out of her depth she is. Poe has a lifetime of knowledge about his heats, and about Alphas, and about how he wants his to be. She's just blundering through with no clue, only stupid half-formed romantic ideas about bonds and mates and tender bite marks in hidden places.

"Help any Omega?" Poe shudders even as he asks it. "Or help me?"

Rey turns her head until her forehead touches the back of his neck.

"Just you," she says, as quiet as she can into the space between them. It's private. It's for them.

“Rey,” Poe begins, his voice wavering. “Nobody’s ever--”

The communicator bursts to life, startling them both. Chewie is not quiet.

<They’re coming up on us. Fast.>

Rey quashes the urge to swear under her breath. “How many?” she replies, reluctant to disturb her moment with Poe even if she has no choice.

<Does it matter? More than one!>

Rey swears and shoves herself up off the bed. Poe stifles a small sound as her body leaves his, but even as it's coming out of his mouth he's flapping a hand at her to go. "Go, go, get us out of here--"

"I'll be back as soon as we're clear," Rey promises, and presses a hand to his forehead for as long a moment as she can before she forces herself up and away.

<There's a Star Destroyer and four TIE fighters!> Chewie roars at her as she staggers into the cockpit and throws herself into the pilot's seat.

"Are we clear enough to jump to lightspeed?" Rey asks, scrubbing furiously at her eyes with the back of her hand. She's aching for Poe, even without scenting him she's just  _ empty _  without him right now, and  _ not now, stupid animal hindbrain, not now-- _

<Not inside the system--we need to-- >

And then the ship rocks, sending her careening into Chewie's half of the cockpit, and BB-8's shriek of warning echoes from down by the smuggling hold.

"What was that?" Rey shouts at Chewie, over the sudden sounds of  _ laser blasts against the hull _ and steam hissing down in the hallway.

Chewie hurls himself out of the copilot's chair and races down the hall, roaring something about hyperdrives always going at the wrong times, and Rey doesn't have any more time to worry about it. She just has to fly right now.

The mask on her face is blocking her vision and she can't see the bottom half of the controls, so without really thinking about it she rips it off and reaches for the yoke. She's much better at this now than she was, taking the controls of a starship for the first time fleeing Jakku--she'll never be able to fly this ship like its true owner, but she can spin it through space, weave through a cloud of TIE fighters like they're just so many irritating gnats.

Poe had been using the Talos system for cover. There was a battle here, between the Rebellion and the old Empire, before Rey or even Poe was born, and the system is filled with empty, echoing hulks of Star Destroyers and cruisers. The star's gravity has been slowly sucking them in for years--but not today, and Rey has all the delightful obstacles she needs to evade the First Order's ships.

Only that backfires, a little, as she accidentally clips the wing of a skeletal Star Destroyer, and sends the whole ship plunging again. "Sorry, I'm sorry!" she screeches down the hall in response to Chewbacca's bass roar, lunging for the control that she should have used on the co-pilot's chair. She's not tall enough for this, her arms just aren't long enough--and she's not two people, she could use a copilot but her copilot is currently roaring and trying to stem the cloud of smoke that's currently filtering into the cockpit in a haze.

A laser blast screams across her field of vision, afterimage blinding red as she blinks furiously, trying to manipulate everything in the cockpit at once to get away from the Star Destroyer closing in. She is not going to fail now. She did not fail Finn getting off Jakku, and she is not going to fail Poe getting him home to D'Qar.

She just--can't reach the bloody--

A hand lands on the alluvial dampers and slams them to engaged, and Rey lunges forward on the yoke and sends them into a screaming dive away from the Star Destroyer.

Hand. A  _ hand. _

_ "What  _ in the name of the seven screaming deserts are you  _ doing?" _ she roars at Poe as he collapses into the copilot's chair.

"Co-piloting," he gasps, his black eyes fever-bright over the mask he's still wearing.

"You cannot fly a ship," Rey snaps, even as she can feel their flight become that much more precise, that much more agile and pointed with two people at the controls--with two  _ pilots _ at the controls-- "You are barely holding yourself upright, Poe--!"

"I can fly anything," Poe grinds out, gaze locked on the vacuum beyond the cockpit, and he reaches out and sends them into a beautiful spiral, TIE fighter blasts rocketing harmlessly past their wings. "Come on, angel, let's get outta here."

Rey swears--loudly, colorfully, and in every language she knows--and does what he says.

She feels everything sharpen around her as they fly--her focus is wholly on the ship, the living metal around her, and she anticipates Poe's movements almost as he's making them. He has the experience of avoiding these exact ships, and she knows  _ this _ ship, and together they are a seamless melding of instinct and skill sending the Falcon flying from her pursuers.

They don't land another hit. And when Chewbacca roars triumphantly in the comm, Rey points them to the edge of the system and Poe slams the hyperdrive lever down.

The stars stretch and blur and explode into white around them, and Rey crows even as Poe lets out a whoop of triumph.

Rey falls back into the pilot's seat, blowing out her breath in relief, and she looks over at Poe with a grin.

Poe's head rolls to the side to look at her. Behind his mask, he grins dazedly. "Nice flying," he says, voice thick and satisfied.

And then his eyes drop to her mouth, and his eyes go wide. "You took your mask off."

Rey takes a deep breath and closes her eyes, letting the adrenaline of the chase fade. "My what?"

And then Poe's scent slams into her.

Rey doubles over with a gasp, a bolt of sun-hot desire rocketing up her spine like nothing she’s ever felt.

Oh. Oh, _oh._ _Oh._ Oh, she can taste him--taste his sweet scent in the air, so needy and desperate, craving the smallest of touches from anyone who can sate him--he's wet, he is probably soaking the seat beside her, and she should say something but all she can do is gasp for air as all the blood in her body floods to her cock and the desire twists hot in the pit of her stomach.

He wants her so badly. Oh, Poe. Oh,  _ Poe. _

"Go back to bed," she grinds out, holding on to the edge of the console like her life depends on it.

Poe lets out a weak moan at the sound of her voice, and he nods, tries to stand. His legs wobble, his knees shaking uncontrollably, and he won't take his eyes off her, won't stop staring at her with aching want written all over his face.

Is it too late for her to put the mask back on? Is it going to make any difference?

"Can't you walk?" she asks him, hearing desperation tinting her own voice, and Poe shakes his head, his glassy eyes huge in his face.

Rey grits her teeth and hauls herself upright by main force, ignoring the instincts that scream  _ take _  and doubly ignoring the instincts that howl  _ mine _  over and over again. She reaches for Poe and pulls his arm around her shoulders with one hand, hooks an arm around his waist with another, and _lifts_ _.  _ She is an Alpha and she is strong enough for this, and she half-carries Poe back to bed while he pants softly in her ear.

Chewbacca flattens himself against the wall to get out of their way as they pass in the hall, and Rey just shakes her head desperately when he tries to talk to her. She can't talk. She has to set him down, she has to get him settled, she has to go lock herself in the X-Wing until she isn't a danger to him or herself anymore--

She half-drops him onto the bed, strength abruptly giving out when the scent of his already-drenched sheets hits her like a blow, and Poe groans again when his back hits the bed.

"Did I hurt you?" she asks desperately, dropping to her knees again--

And then Poe rips off his mask and lunges forward to kiss her, and Rey forgets that there is a universe outside the Omega wrapping himself around her and dragging her close.

He smells--he _tastes_ _ \-- _ he is whimpering so sweetly into her mouth and she hears her own low growl humming from her chest to his, reassuring him as she climbs over him, as she brackets his body with her arms and knees and pins him close and secure in the little alcove of their nest.

He's whining and shaking in his need, and she breaks away and nips gently at his lips to calm him, crooning in her throat as she presses her lips to his neck, to his bondplace where she can feel his pulse thundering under his skin--  

and like his heart under his skin she can hear him under her thoughts--

_yesplease alone so alone yes no yes want need likethis?notlike--like yeslike yes yespleaseplease Rey please_

Rey.

No, _no_ , she is _Rey_ and he is not just some Omega, he is  _ Poe  _ and he _doesn't want this_ _ \-- _

Rey throws her head back with a gasp, rearing back onto her knees over him, and Poe cries out in loss, thrashing against the sheet and reaching up to her. " _Please_ \--"

"No, no, my love, no, I'm sorry, no," Rey babbles, catching his hands and pressing desperate, fervent kisses to his palms, his fingertips, all the beautiful and agile little digits that accomplish such wonderful things. "Poe, come back to me, Poe, come back--"

Poe sobs, whines out a desperate, agonized little sound--but then his eyes clear, and he groans aloud, shaking his head desperately as he tries to curl away. "I'm sorry, Rey, I'm sorry, I just--you put me down and you were so strong and I want it, _fuck_ , I want it so bad--"

And now that she's got her head back on straight, Rey can take a deep breath and realize that he's peaking, that his hormones are flooding him as hard as they can, because she was a sand-blasted idiot and manhandled him in exactly the kinds of ways a territorial, claiming Alpha would.

"I'm here, I've got you," she says, over and over, as she rolls him back onto his side and fits herself in behind him--she can't care any more that her cock is slotting up against his ass like it was made to fit there, she can't worry about touching him too much, because she already has and there's just no point in either of them pretending anymore. "Breathe, my love, just breathe through it, I have you."

"I want you," Poe sobs, clutching her hands in both of his and pressing his forehead against their twined fingers. The curve of his back is almost violent as he arches, his ass pressing back into her in physical instinct for closer contact. "I want it so bad, Rey, I don't want to but I do."

"I know," she says, her own voice cracking with tears. She's in physical pain, she wants to do more than _hold_ him, she wants to kiss, mate, claim. "I'm going to stay just like this, Poe, we'll be just like this, you won't be alone."

She tightens her arms and locks one leg over his to hold him still. He can't arch as strongly, can't twist into her, and Poe keens out a desperate wail.  _ " _ _Rey!_ "

"I've got you," she whispers against the back of his neck, and she presses her forehead to his sweat-soaked hair. "I'm not going to let you go."

Poe is gasping, sobbing, his whole body shaking with convulsions as his body aches desperately for what it can't have. "Rey," he chokes, over and over, saying her name like a prayer. "Rey, Rey, Rey…"

She wraps her arms tighter around him, feels his fingernails digging into her palm, and she thinks of the island, of the ocean still and calm around the single island in the sea. She sends it to Poe as hard as she can, imagining the thoughts flowing from her mind to his. Calm and still. Calm and safe. Calm and home.

After what feels like an eon of wracking, heartbreaking sobs, Poe gradually quiets.

Rey hugs him close, feeling her own face hot and wet with her tears, and she presses their joined hands to his chest. "Poe?" she asks, when she can't bear it anymore.

Poe swallows and tilts his head. "I think…" He has to gasp for air between words, can barely get two out in one breath. "I think that...that was the first...first peak."

"It should be easier now," Rey whispers against his neck, molding her body to the curve of his spine.

Poe nods, barely a twitch of the head, and oh, her darling love, he's limp with exhaustion. Wrung out with tears and shaking and aching.

"Thank you," he manages to say at last.

Rey feels the words like a blow--like the molten stab of a lightsaber sliding through her chest. She closes her eyes again, presses her face to his hair and breathes in Poe, Poe.

"Thank you," he whispers again, his wrecked voice the sweetest thing she's ever heard, his heat scent like earth and greenery and tiny slivers of sky through trees. "It...it  hurt less. This time."

She swallows down the lump in her throat. "Really?"

"Really," he whispers. And then he's asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Textual note: for those of you who may be unfamiliar with the Heirsverse linguistics, non-Betan parents have nongendered terms. "Sire" is for the Alpha parent, "carrier" for the Omega parent. I think this came up last chapter, too, but just in case anyone was having trouble with the terminology!
> 
> As always, [Liz](http://tehriz.tumblr.com) and [Leo](http://babystormpilot.tumblr.com) are on tumblr if you have relentless heatfeels.


	5. yearning in desire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _They look amazing. Incredible. He's never seen two Alphas like this, ever. Rey breathes rhythmically, slow, and Finn's eyes are half-closed as he scents her. Their faces are so close. And Rey opens her eyes slightly, catches Finn's gaze, and tilts her head the other way, tracing her nose over his. Finn sighs, moving with it, and the two of them are practically nuzzling each other._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyyyy...   
> First off, thank you all so much for your patience with us! It's really gratifying to know that you guys stick around for new stuff, even though sometimes it takes us a little while. We're both in a bit of a transition period in our respective lives, so life kind of got in the way this past month.   
> The good news is, the smut has arrived! Kind of. This chapter is like a 3 out of 5 on the smut scale, so we're definitely getting closer. These three nerds are finally getting it into their heads that they can be together. 
> 
> Hopefully the next bit won't be so far off, and we've written some really lovely parts (ft. Jess Pava and also Luke!) that we're both excited to show off! 
> 
> As always, thank you for the continued support and all the wonderful comments!

They have some time before the next peak, and unless Poe’s heats are vastly unlike her rudimentary understanding of the subject, it should be enough time to get them back to D’Qar safely before having to endure it again. She’s loathe to leave him, her Alpha hindbrain reciting  _ protect _ , and  _ guard _ , and  _ mate  _ over and over like a mantra, but she should return to the cockpit and make sure they get back without much fuss. Her logical brain compromises that he isn’t far away at all, and if she hears any sounds of distress, she’s allowed to go check on him. 

It feels as though she’s only just slumped into the pilot’s chair--with a silencing look at the Wookiee before he can even comment--and they’ve arrived back at the Resistance's home. Chewie guides them into a gentle landing, and Rey fastens her mask over her face--just in case--before going to the bunk to check on Poe.

He’s still sleeping soundly, thank the stars and sky above, and while Rey allows herself a single stroke of his hair, she has Chewbacca carry him out. She’s determined to exert any force necessary on anyone who might try to get in for a closer look at Poe Dameron at his most vulnerable, to turn around and bark or snap at any voices she hears making a joke about it.

But the sun has set in their absence, and in the light of the moon, the strip of ships is fairly deserted. Rey thanks all powers that be for small favors.

“Bring him to his bunk, please?” she asks Chewie as they enter the base. “I’ll be along shortly.”

They continue in opposite directions, as Rey heads for the command center. Mercifully, General Organa is a creature of habit, and is exactly where Rey expects to find her.

The general looks up when Rey enters the main briefing room. A hologram of a system Rey doesn't recognize floats in the air above her, the blue glow the only light in the room. In the diffuse glow, the weary lines in the General's face are softened, but the sadness in her eyes seems even deeper.

Their pack leader, Rey can see, has been worried.

“He’s safe. He’s home,” Rey informs her, answering the question before Leia can even draw breath to ask.

Leia’s sigh of relief maybe shouldn’t be as obvious as it is. “I’ve never liked letting him go out there on his own," she says, looking up at the hologram rotating slowly above her. "I know why he does it. I trust him to know himself, but it’s--" She sighs again. "Not safe out there.”

Rey nods. She briefly considers mentioning the skirmish with the TIE fighters, but decides against it. Leia’s worried enough as it is. “He’s got at least one more peak. He only had one while we were out there. I should--”

“Go, please. Make sure he’s looked after." One corner of the general's mouth twists up. “It’s about damn time somebody took proper care of that Omega.”

Rey offers her a (probably unnecessary) little bow, and heads back out in the direction of the barracks.

She should have expected to bump into Finn along the way.

"I saw the Falcon land," Finn blurts out, his hands finding her shoulders and gripping tight. "Please tell me he’s alright."

Finn sounds like he's drowning, holding on just as hard as if he were, and Rey reaches up to hold him just as tightly. “He’s fine. He’s resting,” she assures him. “Not much longer until his next peak, but for now he’s doing just fine.”

Finn’s eyes close, and he draws a deep breath. “I was so afraid he’d be found,” he sighs.

Rey’s mouth quirks up in a little smile. “Only by me, I’m afraid. I have to go check on him, but once he’s awake, I’ll see if he’s feeling up to you coming to see him.”

“Thank you,” Finn replies, and he does sound grateful, if maybe a little sad. “Rey, I--.” He stops himself, catching the words before they can fall out of his mouth. He looks at the floor, and in doing so, he looks ten years younger. “I’m sorry. I know I’m...eager, and I know I press too hard sometimes. I’m trying to learn. I just get so afraid--”

Rey catches his hand in hers. His palm is wider, but she has long fingers, so their hands are fairly evenly matched when placed together. “You’re doing a wonderful job. It won’t be hard forever, Finn. I doubt it’ll even be much longer. He needs to learn, too. As do I. We’re all coming together.”

Finn sniffs a little, and pulls Rey into a hug that’s--different from what she expects. He doesn’t crush her with all his growing Alpha strength, nor does he hug her as if she’s some delicate, breakable thing; he holds her as though by having their bodies close, they’re somehow sharing all the light they possess, passing it back and forth until it grows and shines and dwarfs them all.

“I’ll come get you soon,” Rey says after a moment, stepping away. “And I’ll bring a full report.”

Finn smiles and nods, and he seems much more at ease than he was just moments ago. “I won’t be far if you need me,” he responds, and takes a step back to give her the corridor.

 

**

 

Poe can barely keep his eyes open and every part of his body aches, like he's had a fever, like he's been running for days, like he's been running for days across quicksand  _ with _ a fever. 

Still. There's a part of him that aches worse.

"Can I see him?" he asks Rey, tilting his head toward her.

She shifts up, propping herself on one elbow. "Are you sure you're up for it?"

Poe feels a hazy smile slide across his face. "If you think he is."

Rey takes an experimental sniff of the air, her brow furrowing. "It should be all right," she says finally, and starts to shift off his bed.

Poe closes his eyes and lays his head back down. He's not used to feeling like this during heat--still wrung-out, still so kriffing  _ empty,  _ but...protected. He can close his eyes. He can drift.

When the door opens a sparse few minutes later, it brings a fresh rush of air, and a fresh scent. Cool water and yet a tang of ozone, the earthy smell of cold stone standing tall and strong. Poe's ground. His solid bedrock.

Poe opens his eyes and smiles weakly. "Hey, Finn."

"Hey,  _ Poe-- _ " Finn rushes in with Rey close behind, and Poe takes a deep breath as Finn sits down on the edge of the bunk. Finn smells so good. It settles the still-raw edges of Poe's thoughts. “You look… How are you feeling?”

Poe lets out a rough little chuckle. “I know, I know. Not my usual gorgeous self. But I’m...better. Getting there.”

“No, Poe, you look--” Finn falters for a moment, his tongue tangled on his thoughts. His head is growing muddy, and he isn’t sure why. “Well, tired, yes, but… you’re glowing? I don’t think that’s the right word, exactly, but--”

Even Rey can’t suppress a smile at that, and Poe grins at her. “Hey, I’ll take any compliment I can get."

“Rey says you still have more to go?” Finn asks, reaching out--but he stops just short of taking Poe’s hand. Hesitating.

Poe unfolds one arm and takes Finn's hand, lacing their fingers together. "I think so." The screaming in his body quiets at the touch of Finn's skin, and if they still had any lingering doubt that the kid's an Alpha, this seals the deal for Poe. It's all he can do not to moan out loud.

No, keep it together, Finn asked him a question. "Usually I have about three, uh, we call them peaks," Poe explains, words coming a little slower than usual. "Maybe with you two here, though, it'll." Be easier. Be over quicker. Be less of a kriffing agony than usual.

Finn's brows lift, and his dark eyes brighten like little stars. "You want us both to stay?"

Poe wishes he could be sure it's not his hormones talking. But he's pretty deep into the valley between peaks, and he feels lucid enough, and if he's honest with himself--he trusts them.

"Yeah," Poe rasps out. "Yeah, I'd like you both to stay."

Finn beams, his face alight with sweet, uncomplicated happiness. "I've been really worried about you," he says, tightening his fingers around Poe's. "I know that I--I don't really know anything about this, but I promise I'll do my best."

Poe could cry. "I know you will, buddy." He swallows and casts a glance up to Rey, who's leaning against the door with her arms crossed loosely over her chest. "I've got a tap in the other room, can I get some water?"

"Of course," she says instantly, pushing off and moving with purpose to the next room.

"What can I do?" Finn asks. He reaches up and wraps his other hand around Poe's, holding his hand so tenderly, so carefully.

Poe breathes, filling his nose with calming, centering  _ Finn _ -smell to stop himself from giving the first answer that jumps to mind, which is  _ knot me until I can't remember my name. _ "You wanna get up here and lie down with me? I feel better when someone's touching me."

"Yeah," Finn says, smile even wider, and he scrambles up over Poe's legs without needing to be told twice.

Poe bites his lip and breathes through the shakes that want to come, as he feels Finn settle behind him the way Rey had. Unlike Rey, though, Finn just spoons up behind him right away, no hesitation--and Poe shivers when Finn slips a gentle arm under his shoulders, lets the other one settle over his waist.

"You smell incredible," Finn murmurs. "I mean--is that something I shouldn't say? Because, you do, you really do, but if that's--not appropriate, or whatever--"

"It's fine." Poe hides his helpless smile in the sheets. "You smell really good to me, too. It's the heat, it makes...compatible scents really, really appealing."

"Compatible." Finn sounds like he's taking it in. "So. Guess this means we can be pretty sure…"

"You are absolutely an Alpha," Poe agrees.

"I knew it already," Rey says confidently as she strides back in, carrying a canteen of water. She kneels beside the head of the bed, and Finn's broad hand lifts Poe's head slightly, holding him up so it's easier for him to drink.

Poe could lift his own head. He could probably even sit up. But he's completely, utterly weak, all at once, with these two Alphas treating him so tenderly. So he just lets his eyes fall shut, and sips from the canteen as Rey tilts it carefully for him, as Finn's warm hand flattens along his jaw.

"Better?" Finn asks, when Rey takes the water away, and Poe has to swallow a couple times extra before just nodding. His heat is spiking up again, probably from having these two so near, and he just wants to fall, just wants to let them wrap him up and hold him.

"How do you two feel?" he gets out, because he desperately needs to think of something else for as long as he possibly can. "Any fight reflexes coming up?"

"Oh." Finn sounds surprised. "Does that happen?"

Poe opens his eyes, and he and Rey share equally puzzled looks.

Rey looks over Poe's shoulder, presumably at Finn, and there's a deep question in her eyes. "You've never heard of Alphas fighting for dominance?"

Poe feels Finn shrug behind him. "Just in stories. It was something we'd joke about in the barracks, you know--they taught us that we were better as Betas because we didn't have to worry about that stuff."

"I bet." Poe shares another look with Rey. It makes him ache, that Finn's missed so much of who he is, who he can be. And it makes him worry, a little. Finn's just never been  _ exposed _ to this, maybe he doesn't--

"Hey," Finn says, and then his hand settles on Poe's arm, and his body presses a little closer, and he must have smelled Poe's sadness, his distress. "Hey, it's okay, I'm here now. You're teaching me so much. I feel like I'm  _ me _ for the first time in my life."

Poe closes his eyes and lets the tears slide out, run hot and salty down the end of his nose. He's so kriffing emotional like this, this deep into heat. He wishes he could control it better.

But then Rey croons a little sound and reaches up to brush his tears away, and nope, never mind, Poe wants this forever. He goes limp between his two-- _ the  _ two Alphas, and lets Finn stroke him and Rey hold his face.

"You smell good, too," Finn says quietly, to Rey this time, and she huffs a little laugh.

"Do I?" Poe opens his eyes to see her grinning up at Finn, her eyes sparkling.

"How do I smell to you?" Finn presses, sounding fascinated, sounding so eager to hear, and Poe isn't sure when he started deserving having people this good in his life.

Rey takes a deep breath, lets it out. Her eyebrows draw together slightly, and she tilts her head, rising up on her knees a little to look more closely at Finn. "Come here, let me do that again."

Poe rolls over onto his back to see, pressing more fully into the curve of Finn's body, and watches, wide-eyed, as they both lean over him to be closer to each other. Rey on her knees, stretching up and over for Finn, who half-sits up and leans in. His eyes are heavy-lidded, and Rey's own eyelashes flutter as she dips her head toward his neck and breathes deeply. Finn exhales softly, breathes her in, too, and Poe can only stare.

They look amazing. Incredible. He's never seen two Alphas like this, ever. Rey breathes rhythmically, slow, and Finn's eyes are half-closed as he scents her. Their faces are so close. And Rey opens her eyes slightly, catches Finn's gaze, and tilts her head the other way, tracing her nose over his. Finn sighs, moving with it, and the two of them are practically nuzzling each other.

Finn's hand is still moving on Poe, absently, stroking his shoulder and arm, and Poe can feel his heat climbing up a few more notches just with the touch. With the sight of them like this, it's going up  _ considerably. _

"That's incredible," Rey murmurs, sounding half asleep. "Finn, you smell so good."

"You do, too," Finn says, his voice low and hoarse, and oh, oh no, Poe is too strung-out for this.

"How do you smell so good?" Rey demands, staring at Finn, their faces barely a centimeter apart. "It's--it's  _ Alpha _ , but it's not all harsh and overpowering." She sounds like she's in a dream. "There's an Omega in heat between us, and we should be trying to rip each other apart, but you...you smell like home."

Finn rests his forehead against hers, his eyelashes dipping low, too. "You match his smell," he says, tilting his head just a fraction toward Poe. "Like a...a complement. He's so sweet and you're so spicy."

She presses forward a little, her nose pressing alongside his. They have to be breathing the same air now. "This is amazing," Rey breathes. "This shouldn't be real."

"A lot about us shouldn't be real," Finn says. That voice of his is so rough, scraping across Poe's nerves and setting him sparking in its wake. "Maybe--maybe something they did to me all those years has changed me, I don't know."

Rey laughs once, breathy and gentle, and her other hand comes up to cup the back of Finn's neck. "What a strange place to find such an incredible gift."

Finn's smile is so sweet, so open and honest, and he leans forward just a little bit more, closing his half of the distance between him and Rey.

Rey's smile is just as gentle, and she leans the rest of the way in, and they kiss.

Poe's lost.

He moans out loud, his heat flaring impossibly high at the  _ sight _ of them--these two Alphas, so tender and new and honest and caring, and they're here with him because they want to look after him, and by some miracle they want each other too--? When did he get lucky like this, when did he  _ deserve-- _

They break apart and look down at him, nostrils flaring in unison, and all Poe can do is whimper and shake at the identical look of desire on their faces. Their pupils are blown wide, and Finn’s lips are parted, and wispy curls of brown hair hang in Rey’s face, and Poe wants  _ all of it _ , and he wants it  _ now _ , he wants everything they can give him and more. "Sorry to--to break the moment," he gasps out, shuddering on the bed between them. "I promise I can't help it."

"We've been neglecting you," Rey says--nearly purrs, her voice so low that it goes straight to Poe's aching hole.

"I'm sorry," Finn says instantly, settling down beside him. "I am, I--what do you need, can we do anything?"

"You could kiss again," Poe grits out, even though he knows he shouldn't. "That just did a lot for me, let me tell you."

Finn blinks in surprised delight, his smile sparking bright, and Rey sinks back onto her knees, cupping Poe's face in her hand again. "We can talk about Finn and me another time," she says.

"Do we have to?" Poe and Finn say in unison, and it shocks a giggle out of all three of them.

Poe has to sink back and moan again, just at the rush of warmth that floods through him at their laughter. He isn't used to this. He's never had this before. Laughing and touching and kindness during these long trials of agony--this is so much softer, so much more gentle, so much more…

_ Loving _ , his brain supplies even as he wishes it wouldn't. Poe closes his eyes and tries to push it down. That's for another time. When his head's on straighter. Not now.

But Rey had called him  _ love _ , on the Falcon, when he was so gone into his peak that he could barely remember who and what he was. Just slipped out, like she hadn't even had to think about it--

Poe moans again, lost in the memory, and there's a hand on his face, a scalding body pressed all along the back of his own. Rey's hands stroke his sweaty hair back, Finn molds himself to Poe's body, and Poe shudders. He wants it so badly. He could scream, he could howl and let it echo off the walls of the barracks.

"He's peaking again," Rey's voice says, from somewhere outside the fog, and Poe whimpers, arching against the strong and sturdy Alpha holding him still.

"Just look at him like this," Finn says, gravel-rough and marveling. "Am I sick for thinking it's gorgeous?"

"Not unless I am, too," Rey answers.

Poe wants to purr, wants to roll on his front and display for them--wants to show just how gorgeous he can be, how beautiful he is on his hands and knees, ready for their knots. He wants to be so pretty for them, he wants them to pet him and tell him he's their stunning, precious Omega. He wants them to cover him completely and knot him full and keep him curled up safe in their den until everything's all right again.

"Shh, just stay right where you are," Rey tells him, low like praise, and her hands are on his shoulder and hip, keeping him from rolling the way he wants to. "You're perfect just like this, darling, it's all right."

"You're doing so good for us," Finn's honey-sweet voice adds. "You're staying so calm, so still. You're being so brave."

Poe's whole body goes slack with Finn's words, with the echo of Rey's approval still shivering through him. He's brave, he's perfect. He moans low in his chest, his skin feeling too tight, his clothes so wet and hot and clinging to him.

"Oh, shh, what's the matter?" Rey croons, running her hand down his side. "What is it, my darling?"

"Hot," Poe gets out, pushing weakly at the waist of his flight pants.

Rey mutters something under her breath that Poe can't hear, and Finn's breath is a searing pant along the back of his neck. Poe’s own breathing is paced out in sharp, piston bursts, and his eyelids don’t want to stay more than halfway open for very long. "Please?" he tries again, wriggling against them as if he could get his clothes off through sheer force of will, and Finn's breath comes hot and hard again.

"Oh, sky above," Rey swears softly, and she and Finn must share a look, because there's a pause, all Poe can do is hover breathless between them, ready to beg--

"We've got you," Finn says, and his hand slips under the hem of Poe's clammy shirt. Poe nearly jackknifes off the bed at the touch of Finn's hand to his hip--so broad and so strong and so  _ hot _ , and he feels pressure at the laces of his boots, untying them, tugging them off.

Poe can only lie still and pant as they strip him between them--careful, so gentle, everything they do is so careful--and he whines a little with every inch of his skin that they expose to the air. He's so hot he doesn't even think to be cold, not with this furnace under his skin.

And the whole time, they're talking to him, Finn telling him how good he is for letting them take care of him, Rey murmuring that they're going to make him comfortable, just to be still and let them, and if Poe could speak right now he'd say  _ I will let you do anything you want, just please don't ever stop touching me. _

Finn's hand splays out flat over the twitching muscles of his abdomen, and Rey carefully works his flight pants off his feet, and then he's just in his shorts, thin black fabric completely plastered to his body and soaked through because Poe has never been this wet in his  _ life _ \--

"Please," he gasps out again, when Rey's fingers still on his waist, and he wants so badly to be naked for them, wants them to see all of him. He wants to be vulnerable like he never has before, because for the first time he knows he'll be protected.

Finn drops his head to Poe's shoulder, forehead cool on his overheated skin, and Poe moans at the feel of Finn's lips forming soundless words against him. "You sure?" Finn says aloud finally, and Poe whimpers, nods fervently.

"Oh," Rey says softly, almost a moan, as she pulls Poe's shorts down and off, too. "Oh,  _ Poe. _ "

"I really wanna touch you," Finn confesses, cupping the jut of Poe's hipbone with that warm hand. "Poe, you look so good."

"You smell so good," Rey says thickly, and Poe opens his eyes to see her staring at him with heavy, dark eyes. As he watches, she lifts the crumpled material of his soaked shorts to her nose and breathes deeply, like she just can't help herself, and Poe's shudder is the hardest yet. He groans helplessly, wanting her closer, wanting her to smell  _ him _ , wanting her to  _ taste  _ him, and when Finn says her name low in admiration Poe's wracked with another aching shudder.

Rey opens her eyes and fixes him with a blazing look that goes straight to the pit of his stomach. "Slide back on the bed," she says to him, to Finn. "Can I fit up there, too?"

Poe makes the most undignified sound of lust as Finn pulls him back, into the warm patch of bed left by Finn's body, and Finn hums softly as he pulls Poe even closer. "All three of us," he murmurs in Poe's ear. "All together."

Poe can only let his head fall back helplessly into the sheets, can only pant as the mattress dips and Rey fits herself along his front. Their knees bump, mercifully keeping him from having to feel the actual agony of her knot so close and yet  _ not in him _ \--but then she reaches up and tucks his head against her chest, and all of Poe's senses are completely full of his Alphas. He smells them, can taste Rey in the air, and they're touching him all over, and all he can hear is their breathing, their hearts around him.

Poe moans loud and long, his own heartbeat rocketing under his skin like pulsar stars, and he shakes between them. He's aching. He's empty. He's dripping slick on the bed, can feel it all the way down his thighs, and the only smell in his nose is his Alphas, and he  _ wants _ them so much, he could cry.

"You're doing so well," Finn praises him, the minute Poe's distress leaks out into the air. "You're amazing, Poe, I've never seen anything like you--"

"I want you," Poe chokes out, shuddering uncontrollably as he reaches up and clings to Rey, reaches up and back for Finn. "Please,  _ please _ , I want you so much--"

"We want you, too," Rey breathes, her lips so hot on his forehead, as she mouths at the sweat dripping from his hair. "Lovely, lovely, Poe, our Poe, I can't wait until we can touch you properly, the way you need--"

"I bet you feel amazing," Finn says, sounding almost reverent, and his hand smoothes up Poe's body, over his abs and his chest and his heart to splay wide just below Poe's collarbone. And oh,  _ oh _ ,  _ fuck _ , the feeling of being  _ held _ just there is indescribable. He can feel Finn all over him, can feel the steady thump of Finn's heart against his back, the heat of Finn just under his throat, just short of his bondplace, so  _ close _ .

Poe cries out wordlessly, his heat peaking higher and higher, and he thrashes between them as much as he can, desperate for them in him, ready to  _ die _ without them-- "I need you, I need you, please," he babbles, words spilling out of his chest without him even deciding to say them, but it's only right that he beg for his Alphas, that they know how much he wants them-- "Touch me, fuck me, knot me, I want, I need, you you you please you--"

"We're here," Finn growls rough against his neck. "We're here, you've got us, we have you."

"We're right here," Rey says, and Poe cries when he feels her lips against his scalp. "Next time, you'll have us, you'll have us both."

Not next time, now,  _ now please now _ \--

"You'll be the first, Poe," Finn breathes in his ear, his arms tightening around Poe's chest, cradling him close, so close, so tight. "For me and for her. You'll be our very first."

his too, his too, Poe's never had an Alpha, never not been alone so alone so alone, Poe's never been held while he shakes and gasps and leaks slick over himself and over them and pours out his need into the  _ air _

"We'll make it so good," Rey promises, throaty and beautiful. "We'll be so good to you, Poe Dameron, I'll stretch you on my fingers and you'll take his knot, so perfect and gorgeous, the only way you know how to be--"

oh Poe is perfect Poe is gorgeous Poe is going to be held and kept and knotted and loved

"And then I'll drink all your slick and all his spend out of you," Rey goes on, so hoarse now with even the imagining of it, and Finn is groaning softly into the place between Poe's shoulderblades, and Poe's body is curving and tensing in shuddering waves, "and then it'll be my turn, and I'll take you so deep, so hard, and you'll take my knot while he holds you, and you won't be alone for a second of it--"

And Poe hits his peak in a screaming rush, his whole body jerking and shuddering as he cries out, over and over, clenching on nothing and surrounded by both of them and not alone, for the first time not alone.

They're both breathing hard when he's aware of things outside his body again, Rey's panting stirring his hair and Finn groaning softly as he mouths at the bumps on Poe's spine. Poe moans feebly, turning his face up like a plant reaching for light, and Rey rests her forehead against his, stroking his face and murmuring soft nonsense to him. Finn's strong, perfect arms cradle him close, and Poe feels his body going limp, piece by piece.

"You did so well," Finn tells him, so protective, so proud. "You did so well, Poe--thank you for letting us have this, thank you for trusting us."

Poe flushes warm from head to toe, and he doesn't speak--can't speak--but presses closer into them, buries his face in Rey's chest. Soft, sleepy hums and purrs pull themselves from his throat, involuntary but sincere in the affection behind them. Rey’s fingers run through Poe’s damp hair, soothing and gentle. The rise and fall of Finn’s chest sets the rhythm for Poe’s own relaxed breathing. None of them has to say anything. They all know. And if they think of anything else? There will always be time later. After Poe’s rested, slept off the last of this heat.

Rey gives Finn a soft smile over the crown of Poe’s head, and Finn reaches one hand out to touch her arm. Poe sleeps between them, and they aren’t going anywhere.

 

**

 

“You’re both here.”

Poe sounds like he’s just seen a star going supernova. Rey mentally kicks herself for dozing off; Poe is kneeling up in bed, having extricated himself from between them, and while he’s still naked, his eyes are wide as satellites. She doesn’t smell distress on him - only wonder.

“You’re… How are you both here? And not...in pieces?”

Rey turns her head to glance at Finn, who’s drooling a little on his arm, and the movement tugs at a crick in her neck. “We… How much do you remember, Poe?” she asks, keeping her tone curious instead of guarded. She doesn’t want to frighten him when such a thing is unnecessary.

“I remember you coming after me. I remember you and Finn coming to sit with me,” Poe says, crawling closer to seek out body heat as he realizes that he’s cold. Rey snatches up his shirt from where it hangs off the edge of the bed and shakes it out before bunching it up and holding it out so he can stick his head through. “I know neither of you mated me, but… that’s more of a hindbrain thing than actually remembering?”

Rey’s mouth twists into a thoughtful frown. “Well, that’s true. I suppose you were pretty far gone… but no, we didn’t want to take advantage. We wouldn’t--”

“I know you wouldn’t,” Poe replies with a deeply fond smile, reaching out to cover her hand with his. “I don’t think you could even if you wanted to.” He turns around to get more comfortable, laying on his side with an arm holding up his head to look at her. “Was I… I didn’t--” His lips twitch, like he doesn’t want to ask because he’s afraid of the answer-- “I didn’t embarrass myself, did I?”

Rey gasps sharply, as if she’s more offended by the idea than he is. “Of course not! Poe, you’re amazing-- you’re beautiful, and to see you so open like that was such a privilege!”

Poe lets out a squeak as a pair of strong arms reaches around his body. “Where’d you go?” comes the sleepy mumble from behind him as Finn slogs his way out of sleep. Finn nuzzles the back of his neck like a puppy, and tucks his head against Poe’s shoulder, breathing a deep sigh.

And since Poe’s luck is a cruel thing, it’s only then that he realizes that his underwear is missing from his body.

“Rey!” he wheezes, eyes going wide again. His mouth starts to form the question, but his brain is a step ahead of him. This is familiar. This is a place he’s been before. Suddenly, uncertainty has been replaced by recognition. “He did this-- we did this. Last night. We were all together,” he breathes, his memory coming clear through the fog.

Rey nods. “You remember?” she asks, searching his eyes.

"Kinda," Poe says, staring into the middle distance between them, eyes unfocused as he runs back through his memories. Finn coming in. Finn curling up beside him, Rey bringing him water--

They'd kissed. And he'd lost his kriffing mind.

"Hey, none of that," Finn says gently, almost as soon as Poe feels the first hot flush of shame. His nose must be incredible, Poe thinks dimly, even as he instinctively presses into the comfort of Finn's body behind his. "Poe, it's like Rey said, it was a privilege."

"That's not…" Poe trails off, not sure of how to explain the confused welter of feelings in his chest. "I'm sorry I ruined your moment," he says finally, because it's easier than trying to sort out words for everything he's thinking. "You two were getting at something good."

Rey actually giggles, flushing as she looks over Poe's head at Finn. "We talked about it a little," she says, reaching for Finn's hand over Poe's shoulder. Poe feels another little flush of warmth as he sees Finn's fingers twine with hers. "While you were asleep. But please don't worry--we were both here to take care of  _ you _ , Poe."

"Well, you certainly did," Poe says, and tries to relax. They don't smell as intoxicating as they did last night--when he'd been begging and whining and whimpering for them--but they still smell like everything good he's ever imagined.

He remembers, now, how good it felt to have Finn holding him so close. To have Rey talking to him like she did. He actually  _ came _ , Poe thinks dazedly, just from the way she'd talked, from the way Finn had held him.

He really can't blame himself for losing his head when they kissed. They're incredible together.

Wait.

_ They'd kissed. _ While he'd been in full heat. Two Alphas, a helpless Omega between them in desperate need of cock and knot and everything else--and they'd kissed each other instead of ripping each other's heads off.

Poe sits up again, twisting until he can see both of them. "How do you feel now?" he demands of the two of them.

Rey and Finn share a look. "Fine?" Rey ventures.

"Sleepy," Finn supplies, reaching up to rub his eyes.

"About each other," Poe presses, poking Finn hard in the shoulder.

Finn squirms in discomfort and pokes him right back. "Did you miss the hand-holding a second ago?"

"No," Poe says, suddenly breathless. "No, I didn't."

It mattered last night, when he was so far into heat he could barely think of anything else but the two of them--but now it  _ means _ something like it just couldn't when he was so hazy.

The two of them. Together. Alphas.

With him?

Poe lunges off the bed and scrambles for his clothes. "Pants. Gotta get pants on. We gotta go to medical."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ever seen a star go supernova? tell [Liz](http://tehriz.tumblr.com) and [Leo](http://babystormpilot.tumblr.com) on tumblr.


	6. to follow knowledge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Rey’s head is spinning. “So...what does that mean?” she asks._
> 
>  
> 
> _Kalonia’s mouth quirks up in a little smile. “Well, it means that Finn is a very special--and unusual--Alpha.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a.) THANK YOU, each and every one of you, for your patience and kindness and support. We've both been going through some big changes and tough times, so to have you stick with us means more than we can put into words <3 Just know that we love you all!
> 
> b.) THE SMUT COMETH. Next chapter is gonna be so filthy, you'll need to wash your hands after. Scouts' honor. 
> 
> c.) The next chapter will be posted as soon as possible, and this time, we promise it won't be almost ten months in between posts. 
> 
> L&L

Poe has them each by the wrist as he drags them into the med bay. “I’m sure they have other things to do, Poe, than run studies on Alphaic hormones,” Rey tells him. She’s as eager as he is to know why they--all three--are compatible, but she doesn’t want to waste time poking around in petri dishes if it isn’t going to yield answers. 

“Excuse me,” Poe says, ignoring her and heading over to Dr. Kalonia, who appears to be checking pilot files on a screen. “Do you have a moment? I’m… There have been some physiologically strange things happening and we were hoping to find some answers.”

Kalonia raises an eyebrow at them. “Physiologically strange?” she asks, dubious at best.

Poe nods. “Two Alphas who have exhibited no hostile behaviours towards one another,” he explains. “Even in the presence of an Omega in heat. In fact, they seem to be compatible.”

“If there’s anything you can do-- and if it won’t be too much of an imposition,” Rey interjects, the tips of her ears turning a little red, “we would appreciate the help. We would just like to make sure there’s nothing for any of us to be concerned about.”

Kalonia hums a little, and Poe can tell she’s curious. “Of course,” she replies. And then she’s off, bustling about and taking blood samples and brain scans, and Poe’s dizzy just watching her. It’s almost an hour later when she shoos them out, satisfied with her collection of samples. She assures them that once she’s run her tests, she’d find them, and Poe blinks at the blast doors.

“Well. Uh. I guess that’s that,” he says, rubbing the back of his neck. “Should we find something to eat?”

**

Several hours later, once Rey’s gone out to meditate and Finn is napping in anticipation of Poe’s next peak, Poe finds himself banging on the blast door of Luke’s room. He’s been there for a few minutes longer than is probably necessary, but somehow he can’t get his head around the possibility that the Jedi isn’t inside. “Luke!” he wheezes. “Luke, I need to talk to you. Come on.” He thunks his head against the door and sighs. His shoulders slump forward. 

“He’s not in there.”

Poe turns his head. A bemused Jess Pava is standing in the middle of the corridor, looking at him and failing at hiding a grin, if she’s even trying at all. Poe groans and closes his eyes, and he can’t help the little smirk that quirks up the corner of his mouth.

“Oh, great. Just what I needed,” he teases without much strength. “A shrimpy Beta to come tell me what a complete idiot I’m being.”

Jess grins and delivers a playful punch to his shoulder. “Aw, come on now, Poe, you beat yourself up enough as it is. You don’t need me to help.”

Poe straightens up. “If you know Luke isn’t in here, I’m to understand you know where he actually is?”

“I saw him in the control room with the general and Admiral Statura not long ago,” she replies. “Did you need him for something?”

Poe chews his lip and lets out a long sigh. Now that she’s here, standing in front of him, Poe suddenly realizes how lax he’s been lately in communicating with his squadron. He hasn’t been a great commander lately.

“Hey,” Jess says, her voice softer. “What’s going on with you, Poe? You were so happy, you’ve been happier than I’ve ever seen you for days. And then you just kinda…” She makes a vague gesture and a little blaster impression. “That’s not like you.”

Poe looks around. He owes it to her to tell her, he owes it to his whole squadron. Sure, they don’t need to know every intimate detail of the hell he’s been going through for the past few months, but as their commander, they deserve at least an explanation for his negligence. But, he also doesn’t feel capable of facing them all at once. Not in the state he’s in, and has been in lately. He rubs the back of his neck and takes a deep breath. “You’re right, it’s not. Can we...find somewhere else to talk?”

They head for the hangar, but find it’s busy with techs doing repairs and running data scans and on-board computer upgrades. After some poking around, they end up in one of the farther-off storage holds, and once the blast doors are closed, Poe feels a weight lifting off his shoulders. They sit side-by-side, and to an outside eye, they may pass for siblings. Poe likes that about Jessika--it’s a trait common among Black Squadron. He hand-picked them, and he loves every one of them as pack. Even if Karé Kun is the only other non-Betan human among them.

“So,” Poe begins, picking at a fraying thread in his trousers, “I may or may not be considering two Alphas.”

“No shit,” Jess chuckles. “I may not have seen much of you for the past month, but I have seen enough to know that Finn and Rey are, what’s the word? Besotted?”

That tugs a laugh out of Poe, and he grins a little. “It’s that obvious, huh?”

“It is definitely not subtle.”

“Yeah, well. I don’t do so well with Alphas,” Poe replies. He knows Jess knows this--she was there, when Poe was gasping and sweating his way through the first hours of pre-heat, when Karé offered to help him, and he aimed his blaster at her and threatened to shoot if she didn’t leave. “I don’t know what makes them different, but something does. Something is...I don’t understand it. I--” He trails off, eyes wide, staring at the floor between his feet. Everything clicks into place. Everything makes sense, and yet it still doesn’t make sense. “I love them.” He looks up at Jessika, his lower lip quivering. “I...love them. I want them to be with me. I don’t want to keep pushing them away.”

Jess offers him a warm little smile, and puts her hand on his arm. “Then don’t. If it’s meant to be, Poe, then it’s meant to be. And whether it’s fate, or the Force, or kriffing...whatever, it doesn’t matter. If you want it, go for it. Don’t let it get away from you.”

Poe nods, but Jess isn’t finished yet. “And Poe,” she adds, after a beat, “if that’s the case, if you’re gonna go for it… you owe it to them to have the Force talk.”

Poe’s stomach somersaults like it does when he pulls a barrel roll in his X-wing. Jess pats his knee and stands. “You three are really cute together, by the way,” she calls as she punches the button to open the blast doors.

**

Out in the green, just past the landing yard, Rey stands in a beam of sunlight, eyes closed, feeling the warmth on her face--so unlike the searing heat of Jakku, this is humid, soft, an embrace--and feeling the Force surround her. It moves around her and through her, as if she were made of mist, or of nothing at all. She feels it in her chest, her hands, behind her eyes. As much as she tries to focus on how it feels, moving with her and coursing through her body,  _ something _ keeps speaking to her.

_ Omega beautiful Omega so sweet needs to be cared for deserves to be cared for _

She scrunches up her mouth, eyes still closed, trying to swat the thoughts away. They are unproductive. A good Jedi, a  _ proper _ Jedi, would not be plagued by such things.

_ Proper Jedi no mate no Omega no pups he’s so beautifulwhenheisinheat whenhearches whenhegasps whenhebegs-- _

Rey’s breath catches in her throat and she bites her lip. Stars above, this whole erection thing is going to become an absolute nuisance. She swallows and breathes deeply and evenly, willing it to recede, willing anything but images of Poe, writhing and naked in Finn’s arms, sweating and dripping and crying and  _ howling-- _

“Rey?”

Rey opens her eyes and wheels around, startled. She’s grateful for the length of her tunic, as it hangs almost to her knees, and therefore conceals the outline of her insistent erection, but she can still  _ feel _ it, throbbing just there, and that’s no help at all. When her brain focuses a second later on who is standing behind her, the breath dashes out of her chest.

“Captain Wexley,” she says, hoping that’s the right name. She’s seen him around often, she knows he’s close with Poe, but her interactions with him have been limited. “Is everything alright? Is Poe alright?” Her heart begins to race as her worry grows legs. What if he’s already in heat again? What if something happened and his body is shutting down, incapable of keeping up with itself? What if--

“It’s just Snap, please, and yeah, Poe is fine,” he replies with a little chuckle, and Rey feels the tension in her chest release. “Do you have a second? I don’t mean to interrupt your--”

Rey’s face heats up and she postures a little, hoping she doesn’t look as much of an idiot as she feels. “No, you’re not interrupting anything, I was just finished. What can I do for you?”

“Do you mind if we sit? I’d really like to talk with you, and I think we should both be comfortable,” Snap says, gesturing to the grass. Rey nods and sits cross-legged, and Snap lowers himself to the ground across from her. “I’m here on behalf of both Black and Blue Squadrons. I know we’re not all throwbacks, but...we consider ourselves Poe’s pack,” he explains, with the practiced calm and warmth of a seasoned diplomat. Hard to believe he’s only just a pilot.

“I understand,” Rey nods. “The pack bond is far more an emotional bond than it is a physical one. Of course you would all be pack--the trust you all share for one another is amazing.”

Snap smiles just a little. “So you understand that it is also my duty as part of Poe’s pack to speak with you about him, and about your intentions.”

Suddenly, Rey is a little nervous. Her heart jumps a little. She certainly hadn’t been expecting this, and while it’s all good-natured and good-intentioned, she finds it a bit nerve-wracking to be put on the spot by her hopefully-soon-to-be-mate’s packmate. Still, she masters her anxiety and places her palms on the joints of her knees in a gesture of peace. “As your packmate’s intended, I give you leave to ask what you will,” she recites, remembering Luke’s lessons on the older customs.

Snap lets out a laugh that shakes his shoulders like an earthquake. “I’m only a Beta, Rey, no need to be so formal. But, point taken, I know you take the whole thing seriously. So. That being said, Poe doesn’t come from a traditional pack, or a traditional clan. We may not be throwbacks, but we need you to know, we’re all invested in his happiness.”

“Of course,” Rey replies. “We wouldn’t dream of leaving you out of his life. You’re important to him. Anything that’s important to Poe is important to us.”

“Us… Oh!” Snap says. “Wait--you and Finn? You’re courting him separately, though, aren’t you?”

Rey shakes her head. “We’re together. All of us.”

Snap swipes his palm over his face, trying to process this. “That’s not-- _ possible, _ is it? Two Alphas can’t share a mate, can they?”

Rey takes a breath. She knows their relationship isn’t exactly orthodox. She just hasn’t had to talk about it much until now. “It isn’t that we’re sharing him, exactly. More that...we’re all  _ each other’s _ mates.”

Snap takes a moment to consider this. Several emotions pass across his face, and Rey is formulating a more complete explanation when he finally answers. “Okay. Alright. So you’re...all three. Together.”

“It’s new to us, too,” Rey assures him. “We’re learning. Poe’s happiness and safety are priority, and because of that, we’re all learning. We’ve actually already spoken with Doctor Kalonia about studying the Alpha bond.”

Snap smiles a little. “Well, no one can say you aren’t thorough.”

“I swear, Snap, by all the stars,” Rey says, and she’s pouring her heart and soul into this, she’s trying to make sure he knows that every word she says is the absolute truth, “we love Poe, and we would never do anything to hurt him. We want him to be safe, and happy, and loved, because he deserves that. And more.”

Snap smiles. After a moment, he hauls himself back to his feet. Rey follows suit, and once she’s standing, Snap offers her his hand. Rey feels warm all over, as if every nerve ending in her body is anticipating what he’s about to say. Her chest aches, and she realizes she’s forgotten to breathe. “I am glad to hear it. I give my blessing for your suit--and Finn’s, and I am happy to call you  _ aleph _ .”

Rey didn’t anticipate the tears that spring to her eyes, blurring her vision as she shakes Snap’s hand, and then pulls him into a hug. “Thank you, brother,” she says into his shoulder, sniffing back her tears. “We won’t disappoint you.”

**

It’s just after nightfall when the comm in Poe’s room alerts them that they’re--all three--needed in the med bay. “That was quick,” Poe mutters, rising from where he’s slumped against the wall, laying across his bed and messing with a tangled bundle of wires and cords. Rey has been sitting on the ground, helping BB-8 upgrade some programming, while Finn has been thumbing through some manual he found on Poe’s shelf. They’ve been awaiting Poe’s next peak for hours, but it seems his body is quieting down for the time being. He can feel that edge that tells him he isn’t in the clear yet, but neither is he ready to tear his clothes off. The three of them stand, and Poe shrugs on his jacket as they head out the door, stomachs churning, minds racing, in the hopes that there are answers awaiting them. When they arrive, Kalonia is studying a holographic array of images, which all look like test samples. She makes a thoughtful sound in her throat as she looks at the screen.

“It’s all...certainly unusual,” she remarks, and Poe can’t help but wonder if any of them will understand the technical aspects of why the thing they already know is unusual is actually unusual. “It appears as though--look, here. This is a normal Alpha pheromone--we’ve translated the scent into the neurological reaction produced by it, so that we can see it. A normal Alpha, when exposed to another Alpha under normal circumstances, should look like this--prepared for conflict, but passive, not engaged. Two Alphas that come into conflict--” she taps the screen with her fingertip, moving the view. “--would look like this. See how it’s changed, so the white completely fills the circle? That’s a rage response, the Alpha’s pheromones being overloaded with the instinct to fight and defend.” She clicks her tongue and moves the screen again. “This… is Finn and Rey’s pheromone charts. Rey’s--when tested under calm, no-stress circumstances, look like a standard Alpha’s. But Finn’s...have almost no white at all. There’s some, but nowhere near what an average Alpha’s would be. Now, that doesn’t make him any less of an Alpha. Not at all. It just means that his hindbrain does not set rage as its go-to reaction. It gets more interesting when we look at this: Rey’s pheromones, when coupled with Finn’s… The white shrinks. Not quite to the degree that Finn’s is, but it’s noticeably smaller--her offensive response is tempered by it.”

Rey’s head is spinning. “So...what does that mean?” she asks.

Kalonia’s mouth quirks up in a little smile. “Well, it means that Finn is a very special--and unusual--Alpha.”

“Has this ever happened before?” Poe asks, genuinely curious. 

Kalonia shrugs. “Not that we've tested. There are rare instances of Alphas being compatible with each other, but they are few and far between, and so far as I know, no studies have been conducted. I think it's more than safe to say, however, that you two are compatible. And, interestingly, your shared bond with Poe may make your compatibility stronger. But to prove that may require further testing.”

Poe’s mouth twists. They don’t exactly have  _ time _ for more tests right now, not with all the planning and recon they have to do, and he feels guilty having medical tied up with all of his own personal stuff. But… “Is there anything we can do about the early heats?” he asks, his voice small. He feels a hand--probably Finn’s, it feels warm and big--at the small of his back, and a little wave of calm rolls over him.

“Without suppressants, without medical intervention, it can be difficult to control and regulate your heat cycles,” Kalonia says, apologetic. “And by difficult, I mean--”

“Impossible,” Poe supplies.

“I wasn’t going to say it, because nothing is truly impossible. But...yes. I do recommend--take it or leave it--not going through another empty heat. Your body is so flooded and overwhelmed with hormones that it’s trying to tell you that it can’t take any more wasted heats.”

Poe feels his cheeks warm. This isn’t exactly a talk he relishes having in front of the two (young, healthy,  _ virile _ ) Alphas whose suits he’s seriously considering. Whose suits he’s accepted in all but word. At the same time, he feels he should be at least a little bit embarrassed at the fact that Kalonia saying it has now put the thought in his head, the image that Rey and Finn had so beautifully crafted for him last night. And that thought makes him squirm and want to drag them both back to his bunk and kiss them until all three of them are stupid. By his reckoning, he’s got another night or two of heat. The longer he denies his body what it wants, the longer this will go on. The longer this goes on, the more dire his health situation becomes. Besides, he  _ wants _ them, wants them more than he’s ever wanted anything. They’ve been so kind and gentle and accepting of him… He doesn’t owe them, he doesn’t owe anyone anything, no Omega does. But he does want them to share his heat.

Rey puts a hand on his shoulder, and he can feel the racing thoughts begin to go away like water swirling down a drain. He feels so steady when his Alphas--the Alphas, these two Alphas, they aren’t  _ his _ \--are around. It makes his stomach swoop. They  _ are _ his. Or they will be, soon. A frisson of energy makes him shiver, and he can feel his pulse speed up. Warmth pools in his belly. This is it.

“Thank you,” Rey says to Kalonia, and if she’s noticed Poe slipping into the upswing of heat again, she doesn’t indicate it. “This is a lot of helpful information, and once we have more time and more resources, we’d be happy to help with any further studies. For now, I think, we need to talk some things over and decide what we’re going to do in the meantime.”

Kalonia responds with a gentle nod and swipes at her screen to clear the images as Rey ushers Finn and Poe into the hallway and back to Poe’s bunk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> START YOUR ENGINES, PUNKS. DICKS ARE GOIN IN HOLES*.
> 
> [Liz](http://tehriz.tumblr.com) and [Leo](http://beysdameron.tumblr.com) are both on tumblr, so come yell at us and thank us for waking the heck up.
> 
> *just the one hole. probably. for now. there's gonna be sex, alright? it'll be fine.


	7. some three suns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _He can feel Finn moving behind him, but any sense of what he’s doing is lost to Poe right now. He’s caught between two Alphas that he loves more than life itself, two Alphas he’d cross galaxies for, and they’re going to mate him, and it’s never hit him more acutely that he wants this more than he’s wanted anything in his life._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WE MADE IT. FIRST KNOT PARTY!   
> Phew. 
> 
> thank you guys so much for sticking it out, and being patient with us, and just generally being so fantastic. we've both got a lot of real life things happening, and sometimes it can be hard to make time or reserve emotional energy for the things we really enjoy doing. namely, writing Poe Dameron getting the living shit fucked out of him.

No sooner has the blast door sealed behind them than Poe is whirling around, pressing himself against Finn--he’s closest, the easiest to access--and devouring his lips in a needy kiss. Poe’s fists are balled up in the front of Finn’s shirt, his nails are scratching against Finn’s chest through the fabric, he  _ wants  _ so badly--

“Poe,” Rey says, and her voice drips authority. Poe’s knees go weak, and he watches Finn’s pupils widen. Poe turns to see her standing beside the bed, turns until his back is pressed against Finn’s chest, and then he  _ feels  _ and he can’t help but  _ squirm _ and press his ass against the growing bulge in Finn’s trousers--

“Poe!” Rey says again, more sharply, and Poe can’t help the little whine that scrapes its way out of his throat. 

He can barely keep his eyes open, just wants to bow his head and let them  _ take.  _ "Rey," he gets out, his voice hoarse--he can feel himself falling into them, into this-- "Rey, I want--"

She steps closer and reaches up to trace his cheek. Her fingertips burn and soothe him all at once. “I know you want, Poe," she says, her voice a low, sweet purr. "We both know. We’re going to take care of you. We have to know what you consent to. You have to tell us.”

Poe arches forward until he can nuzzle her cheek, his hands and ass still pressing back against Finn. Her scent calms the storm of hormones churning in him--gives his aching body a respite, like her scent and Finn's combined are enough to convince his body  _ yes, mates, now _ . 

There's something he should say, then.

Poe takes a deep breath, taking in more of their scents, more of the sweet Alpha smell that settles his chaotic thoughts and ratchets up his arousal all at once. He clears his throat and looks back over his shoulder at Finn, reaches out to take one of his hands, and holds Rey's with the other. “Rey, Finn...I want you to mate me. I want you to  _ knot _ me. I don’t want to be empty anymore. I want  _ you, _ I want--" Nope, it's getting away from him again,  _ wrap it up, Dameron-- _

Poe swallows hard and gets the old words out. "I accept your suits, and would be honored to be your bonded.”

That sounded pretty good. Rey's eyes glow like suns as she gazes at him, and when he looks back at Finn, there's a whole universe of promises in Finn's smile.

"Okay," Poe says, shaky with heat and elation and relief. "Can we get back to kissing now?"

Rey's smile breaks wide with joy, and Finn laughs as he tugs Poe back into his arms. His lips press warm to the back of Poe's neck--to his shoulder--to, oh, just over his bondplace. Poe shivers bodily against him, can't help arching, offering--he's so ready to give, to just give them everything. 

Finn feels the offer, feels it in Poe's whole body, and breathes out heavily.  “Oh, Poe,” Finn whispers, sounding a little overwhelmed. Poe pushes back into him more, his body shaking, but all Finn does is kiss his neck again, tender and gentle. "Not yet. You deserve better for a bonding, but Poe--the honor's all ours."

Poe lifts his eyes to Rey, and her face is warm and open and so,  _ so happy.  _

She also looks like she wants to eat them both alive, and Poe can't help but moan again.

Rey's eyes go even darker, hotter, and she steps forward until she's pressed to Poe's chest, one arm taking Finn's shoulder and the other wrapping close around Poe's waist. "Yes," she agrees, hoarse and almost a growl. "Our honor, Poe."

Poe savors it, held between them--loved, cared for, protected. He feels so warm, so wanted. He gets to  _ have  _ this.

And then it starts to get  _ too   _ arm, and  _ too  _ much, because they're both so close and he can feel how much slick he's leaking, and he's rising higher and higher towards his peak and he  _ needs them-- _

"F-Finn, Rey," he gets out, his need rising up to choke him--but they understand, they always do, and their hands are on him, soothing, before his distress can climb any higher.

“Bed,” Finn says, steady and firm, and together they walk him over to the mattress. Poe's lost as they guide him--as they have to manhandle him a little, their Alpha strength coming to the fore as they help him settle. He squirms again, still held close against Finn's chest, and he can feel Finn's cock hard against his back. He whines,  _ aching,  _ and wriggles back against it, squirming helplessly as he feels Finn's sharp intake of breath.

Rey nuzzles her nose against Poe’s, her hands settling on his waist. “Poe, do you want him? Do you want Finn to fuck you first?" Poe whines again, desperate for it, as they settle him onto the bed, and Rey laughs softly, butting her head gently against his. “You have to say it, Poe, you have to tell us what you want.”

His eyelids flutter as he tries to force them open, tries to force himself to stay coherent enough to get out--  _ "Yes, fuck me, please." _

He barely recognizes his own voice, but from the way they both make sounds of pure desire, he knows he got it across.

Rey's voice is thick with desire when she speaks. "Can I get you ready for him? Can we take your clothes off?"

Poe can only nod, beyond words. He can feel Finn moving behind him, but any sense of what he’s doing is lost to Poe right now. He’s caught between two Alphas that he loves more than life itself, two Alphas he’d cross galaxies for, and they’re going to  _ mate  _ him, and it’s never hit him more acutely that he wants this more than he’s wanted anything in his life. 

Rey’s hands are against the skin of his belly, under his shirt, dipping under the waist of his pants and pushing them off his legs with his underwear. He whimpers, aching for them, and Rey moves in to press her lips against his, catching the noise with her mouth. Her hands slide over his skin, easing his clothes down as far as he can reach. Then another pair of hands move up under his shirt, and they’re so warm and big against his chest, and they scrunch Poe’s shirt up until he lifts his arms and Finn tugs it over his head. He's so caught up in the feeling of Finn’s broad chest behind him, now that they're skin-to-skin, that he doesn't realize where Rey’s fingers are until--

“ _ Fuck! _ ” he yelps, jackknifing back against Finn as he feels the pads of Rey’s fingers stroke against his sopping wet slit. “Fuck, please, Rey--" And then he hears himself say words he never thought he'd hear himself say to anyone: "Alpha,  _ please! _ ” 

Finn rumbles in pleasure and Rey purrs, and he can't feel self-conscious or ashamed with them, he can't. They want him and he wants to give them so much. He's chosen this. They're  _ his. _

“You're so wet already, Poe,” Rey murmurs, swirling her fingers against his entrance, spreading them to open him up to her view. He's soaked and glistening, and even in his haze Poe sees the wonder in her eyes. “You're going to take our Finn so beautifully, aren't you? He's going to slide right into you and there won't be an ounce of resistance, will there?” 

Her words spur Poe past just longing for them into a frenzy of need. It's been years since he presented as Omega, years since his first heat, and in all that time, he has never been more desperate to have an Alpha inside him than he is right now. Sweat runs into his eyes and he's aching everywhere and he can't help but grind down against her fingers and half-sob with need. “Please,” he gasps, “please, I'm ready, I need it, I need--”

Rey draws her slick hand gently back from his hole, and even as he keens with loss she lifts her glistening fingers to her lips. She takes a deep breath, breathing in the scent of him, then licks his slick from her hand.

Her eyes close in pleasure, then flutter back open to gaze at them as Finn growls her name and Poe whimpers it. She winks at Finn, then her dark eyes lock onto Poe's with intent. 

“Present, Omega,” she commands, and he's fucking  _ gone.  _

He squirms out of Finn's lap and drops longways on the bed, then draws his shaking arms and knees under himself so he can present himself to them. As he drops his head and arches his back until his ass is in the air, his mind can't stop racing, his chest full of so many wants he doesn't know how he can contain them. He wants to be appealing to them, he wants to show them that he can do this, that years of empty heats haven't ruined him. He wants them to touch him, he wants them to love him, he wants this to be as good as he's always dreamed--

He doesn't realize he's whimpering softly, filling the space between them with his need, until Finn's warm hand lands on his back and makes him cry out and miss the sound. 

Finn sounds as wrecked as Poe feels. “Oh, Poe,” he breathes, and Poe feels the bed dip as Finn slides in behind him, his palm spread warm and gentle over the curve of his ass. Then both of Finn's hands are touching him, spreading him, staring at his dripping, twitching hole, and there is no part of him Finn hasn't seen now. Poe can feel Finn's heartbeat in his own ears, his fingertips, his chest. 

Finn laughs, low with wonder, and Poe has never loved him as much as he does right now, with Finn sounding amazed, not repulsed or disgusted, at the sight of Poe's need. “Poe, I'm gonna knot you, I just know it," Finn murmurs. "Our first time, and I'm gonna pop my knot.”

Poe can't hold back his shuddering cry, his whole body quaking as he squirms and leaks slick down his thighs. "Please, Finn." God, he wants that. He wants Finn's knot, he wants Finn inside him. "Alpha, please?"

“Don't make him wait anymore, Finn,” Rey says, her voice smoky, low, and she sits down on the bed in front of Poe. He lifts his head from the bed to see her smiling at him, one hand stroking slowly over the length of her hard cock. He wants them both, he wishes he could take them both  _ now, _ but he knows he'll have her in time. He leans back into the arch a little more, showing Finn just how much he wants to feel him, showing Rey how good he'll be.

Finn's hands slide forward to grasp Poe's hips, and he feels so right, so natural--Poe can't believe Finn's never mounted anyone before, he does it so well, holds Poe with such surety.

The barest hint of flight instinct races through him as he feels the head of Finn’s cock rest against his entrance, the fleeting image of Omegas being crated and bound and knotted against their will, in an effort to breed an army--

But that isn’t this. That’s the furthest thing from this. He's chosen this Alpha, both of these Alphas, and they are going to breed him because he  _ chooses _ to be bred, and if that isn’t the hottest thought he’s had in weeks, he doesn’t know what is. Finn’s fingers press into his skin, firm enough to hold him still, but not enough to bruise.

“Your first knot,” Finn breathes, and pushes into him.

When he remembers it later, Poe will be amazed that they made it as good as they did, or a first time for both of them--for how long Finn holds onto his control, really. Finn slides in slow, doesn't seat himself fully on the first push, and Poe doesn't shove back onto him, doesn't writhe and cry out to get more inside of him. They go slow, rock together, even as Poe's lost in the friction, head spinning as Finn's cock drives all the breath out of him in a cry. Finn pulls out slowly, his gasps harmony to Poe's sharp whines, and the slick drag of Finn in him makes Poe want to howl the ceiling down.

Finn slides in again, a few times, getting the sense of it, and even though it's so good Poe can feel it in his toes, has flashes of stars blurring at lightspeed behind his eyes, he knows Finn is being so  _ careful. _ And he doesn't have to be. Poe's not going to break--

Well, he might. But if he does, he wants to fall apart getting fucked.

"Harder," Poe moans into the blanket, the first rush of Alpha pheromones settling his brain enough for him to get it out. "Finn,  _ Alpha,  _ harder, I want it,  _ harder--" _

“ _ Fuck, _ you two,” Rey breathes, and her hand's working faster at her cock now, her hair hanging in her face and her cheeks flushed as Poe turns his head. He presses his cheek to the bed, staring hazily up at her with his lips parted, and Rey drops her her head back with a whispered curse. She rolls her head on her neck, then fixes them both with a look hot enough to melt the core of a star. "My beautiful mates," she growls. "Go on, Finn, make him feel you."

Finn laughs breathlessly, a laugh that turns into a possessive growl of desire as he leans over Poe, kisses up his spine until they're pressed together, Finn's chest to Poe's back. Finn lets go of Poe's hip with one hand, but Poe doesn't have time to even feel its loss before Finn's hand presses to his chest, over his heart. 

"Not gonna last," Finn gasps, nipping at Poe's ear even as he holds him so tenderly. "And I don't think you are, either. You want it now, Poe? You want my knot?"

If he wasn’t before, hearing the words has made Poe more ready than he’s ever been in his life. He sobs out high and needy, nods so desperately he feels the sweat drip from his hair onto the bed, and Finn gives it to him. Finn fucks him faster, harder, the force behind his thrusts building as he gives himself over. Finn's Alpha strength finds its match in Poe's Omega endurance, and they come together in a frenzy, feeding each other's ache until Poe can feel the beginning of Finn's knot swell against his hole. 

"Finn," he gasps, pressing back, presenting, "Finn,  _ knot me _ \--"

Finn slams in and slides home, his knot swelling to tie them together.

Poe comes in a white-hot rush.

He can feel Finn gasp, feel the heat of Finn's groan against his skin as Poe's body clenches down on him. He feels his body shuddering on Finn's knot, wrenching Finn's orgasm from his body as it finally, finally has the Alpha it's been craving. He feels his own pleasure coursing through his body in waves of heat, pure biological impulse making him writhe and shake and draw out his peak--and Finn's--as long as possible, making it good, making it last, making sure they'll stay tied as long as possible.

Poe  _ feels _ all of this. He doesn't  _ think  _ about anything at all. There's nothing in his head but _ knot, Alpha, mine,  _ mine.

He's never felt so safe.

He comes back to himself to the sound of his own name, murmured in his ear. Soft croons, hands stroking his arms, his side, his flank. He blinks his eyes open to find the world sideways--he realizes after a moment that he's lying on his side, Finn spooned up against his back and holding him close. They're still tied, Finn's warmth filling him, and Poe knows it's Finn stroking him, talking to him, saying how good he was, how good he still feels, how perfect and precious he is.

Rey's face swims into focus in front of him, and Poe barely has time to hum in pleasure before she leans in for a kiss. He sighs, floating on pleasure, as she kisses him deep and serious, but her touch is soothing, not forceful or demanding. He's glad to have her with them as they come down, as he soaks this in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CONGRATS ON THE SEX, PARTY IN [LIZ'S](http://tehriz.tumblr.com) AND [LEO'S](http://beysdameron.tumblr.com) INBOXES TO FOLLOW
> 
> also... part 2 of the Knot Poe Dameron 2k17 Fest is on its way!


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